Prime Heroes
by General Texas
Summary: "The Earth has gone down in chaos. The Autobots, Dinobots, and even the Decepticons have all gone down fighting the Grimm threat that humanity has created. Optimus Prime imprisoned the dragon in a mountain and sealed himself away with the Matrix of Leadership in a Tomb which I found. I'm all that's left. My name is Maximus Prime, and this is my story." T for language & violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Optimus Prime, Megatron, the Autobots and Decepticons, and everything else within the Transformers movies belong to Hasbro, Inc. Ruby Rose, Team RWBY, Beacon, Vale, the concept of Auras and Semblances, creatures of Grimm, and everything else within the RWBY anime belong to the late Monty Oum and RoosterTeeth. Anything not pertaining to the above or the real world is the intellectual works of the author. Enjoy.**

 **Warning: this story contains profanity, much harsher language than what is usually portrayed by other works by the author. If any harsh language offends you, stop reading right now. This story also contains serious violence in common with both RWBY and Transformers. If violence makes you uneasy, stop reading now. Reader discretion highly advised.**

* * *

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/Transformers crossover

Prologue: Optimus's Final Battle/Maximus Prime

* * *

3057 AD

At well over 24,000 years old, as well as having fought countless battles against Decepticons, his 'Creators', and other extraterrestrial species, Optimus Prime had several cracks and breaks in his metal body. Surprisingly though, he was still in one piece and was together enough to return to Earth. He knew the chances of the planet being the same as he last remembered were very slim, as it was over a millennium since he had last been to the blue world. He only hoped that the other Autobots had held back Galvatron/Megatron, even defeated the seemingly unkillable foe in his absence.

As he flew past Mars, he reminisced on the humans he'd met in his time there. Sam Witwicky, the young man present since the very beginning. Cade Yeager, the inventor, father, and optimistic middle-aged man who helped him in his battles against the man-made Transformers, Galvatron, and Lockdown's forces. Both were probably long-gone by now, as humans only lived a century at best.

Optimus was surprised, however, when he saw the shattered moon in place of the once-whole natural satellite orbiting the planet. He saw the wreckage of the Ark, which told him that he was in the right place. By now, the Prime was beginning to get worried about the fate of Mankind. He prayed to the Allspark that humanity hadn't destroyed itself in war.

Upon entering the atmosphere, he noticed that the landscape was far different than what he remembered last: there were two or more main continents, one massive ocean, and several small islands surrounding each continent. In place of the massive cities such as New York and Las Vegas, there was only ruin, rubble overgrown with foliage; any metal in view was rusted over from thousands of years without proper maintenance. He did not fully understand how humans used metal, but he knew they wouldn't simply leave it to rust like it had. The worry in his spark grew larger and larger as he descended low enough that the shield protecting him no longer glowed with heat.

Suddenly, he was struck by a large organism the size of one of the aircraft he'd been in on Earth. In his struggle to get out of its grip, he noticed a few things about the creature: it resembled a crow, if crows could grow to half his size; along with this, it had shining red eyes and plates of bone armoring it in several places. He felt an overwhelming presence of darkness in the creature, which was descending in its struggle to keep him aloft as he attempted to free himself of its grasp.

Eventually, he was able to get an armored arm to where he could draw some form of weapon. With a massive Cybertronian rifle in his hand, he leveled the barrel with the avian's head and pulled the trigger. He expected the bird to explode into several pieces from the point-blank artillery, but the head was simply vaporized, causing the bird to start tumbling from the sky as any creature would.

"What is going on here," Optimus asked himself as he tried to control his fall and landed in a kneeling position. Upon landing, he heard a familiar crunch of his weight crushing a vertebrate creature. He lifted his massive foot to reveal that he crushed yet another of the black creatures, this one similar to a bear. Immediately, it started dissolving into the air as black smoke. "What are these creatures? Where did they come from, and why did the other Autobots not stop them?"

After thinking of the last question, he felt a feeling of dread and opened a communication channel to contact any other Cybertronians in the solar system.

"Calling all Autobots," he said in his transmission, "Calling all Autobots. Can you hear me?"

No answer. He repeated his transmission several times, only to receive no response. Now Optimus feared the worst had happened. He knew at least one Autobot might die of old age, and the Dinobots had run off to expand upon their new freedoms, but no response from all of them? Perhaps they had left in search of him. That would certainly explain how the human cities had come to such ruin, but the humans weren't at war for some time since he'd arrived at Earth.

"Perhaps I should search the area," Optimus thought aloud. "They may be hiding somewhere."

Ten weeks of searching later, after scouring the depths of the ocean, the dark side of the shattered moon, the craters of Mars, and the ruined human cities, Optimus finally found a transmission hard drive on a farm in what was once Illinois. He activated it and began searching for the Cybertronian who originally owned it.

"Transmission Log April 19, 2905 Earth time, 1900 hours Central Standard," crackled the familiar voice of Hound. "The humans are thinking they can create life in a test tube again. At least they aren't trying to replicate us anymore. Problem is they're trying to use radiation to bring these things to life. I don't think it'll work, but at least they've got their creations under some serious security. Here's to success and no more baddies. *Sigh* I just hope Optimus is doing alright. End of transmission."

The transmission crackled with static before moving on to another log.

"Transmission Log June 22, 2924 Earth time, 2000 hours Central Standard," Hound's voice crackled once more, leading the Prime to assume this was Hound's hard drive. "That test the humans tried on the new creatures succeeded, and now they're trying to create intelligent life from that. Good luck with that, I'd say. 'Course they won't listen to a damn thing, as usual, but they're humans. Stupid, sure, but they're still humans. Damn, Prime's been gone a while. About nine centuries by now, if I remember correctly. How long are you going to be out there, Prime? *Sigh* End of transmission."

Again the transmission crackled, cut off by yet another transmission log.

"Transmission log May 18, 2945 Earth time, 1400 hours Central Standard. Once more, the humans have surprised me. Twice. Firstly, they've managed to create intelligent life in the form of some kind of dragon they call a wyvern. No clue what the Hell that's supposed to mean, but they're certainly proud of it. And secondly, tensions are a little too high to be called 'peaceful'. Some people aren't too happy that these scientists have created life in the first place. This 'time of loose peace' ain't gonna last long, if you ask me. I mean, sure I wanna kick some ass, but not full scale war like a few centuries ago. I wonder what Optimus is up to. What would Optimus do in this kind of situation? End of transmission."

The crackle of static began and ended as usual before the next recording began.

"Transmission log August 8, 2961—ach, forget it. Important thing is things are going haywire right now. Humans blew up the moon, and I can't see the damn thing through the dust and smoke. Riots have broken out in even major cities, and about a million lives have been lost already. The Dinobots have come back just in time for shit to go downhill. Those synthetic organisms are starting to get all sorts of riled up for some weird reason. I think it's all this war going on is screwing with their minds or something. All the same, it's not good. Optimus, where the Hell are you? We need you right about now. End of transmission. Now how the f*ck do I turn this thing off?"

The final recording followed more static. This one was different, way different from the other transmissions. Hound seemed to be panicking.

"It's year 3001 and all Hell just broke loose. Those riots sure had an effect on the synthetic things, but I'm not so sure it was good. At one point they had purple eyes, now they've got red eyes. I heard they had purple eyes because some human told me before I got to see one up close and personal. It was a black makeshift bear, ivory plates all over it. But those eyes… they remind me of those Decepticon bastards, but an entire army of 'em tied into one organic beast. It was pure evil, like nothing I've ever seen before. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps. Anyways, it had broken out of its containment pod-thing and had already killed several scientists. I managed to kill it, but I think that's because I'm made of metal and it's all fleshy and covered with bones and whatnot.

"Then something crazy happened. It started disintegrating, turning into this black smoke. I've seen some horror movies made by these humans, and I don't think even demons are supposed to do that. I did my best to get everyone out of that facility, then got the Hell out of there myself. Now Galvatron's army is gone, Galvatron himself is dead, and most of the other Autobots died right in front of me. Bumblebee took all the Sparks, kept 'em safe, then skedaddled. Even I'm pretty beat up. I tried to beat that dragon thing, but I couldn't get through its hide. Damn thing's just too fast. I'm in the middle of a forest in the Americas, those other things haven't found me yet, but that dragon thing knows where I went. It can see all that grease and Energon I've leaked. I can't hide for long. Optimus, I know you'll come back. You've gotta. When you get this, Bee went to some mountain range in whatever's left of Europe and Asia. He's hiding in one of those mountains there. Another Arcee sister dropped in a few years ago, but she recently gave up her Spark to save some humans. Bee was still down about that when he grabbed the other Sparks and ran.

"Listen, Optimus: you've gotta beat that dragon-thing. It controls the other beasts. It even beat the Dinobots at their own game. So when you get here, kick its ass for me. Oh, shit. It's coming. See ya in another life, Prime. It's been an honor—ACH!"

From there, the only thing Optimus could hear was Hound's struggle against a massive creature. Eventually, the beast crushed Hound in its jaws, killing the Autobot. That was about when Optimus found the rusting Spark chamber of his deceased ally. The Spark itself was undamaged, only the chamber was rusted and beaten relentlessly.

"By the Allspark," Prime muttered. Whatever this thing was, he knew its next target would've been Bumblebee, Optimus's only trusted companion. "If you're still alive, Bumblebee, hang in there. I'm coming."

* * *

By the time the Prime reached the aforementioned mountains, he knew he was already too late: the creatures had already reached the area. The condition of any human settlements was grim, as their technology had been sent back to that of the Medieval Era. He made their lives more bearable in clearing out many of the creatures. Some of the few he was able to encounter without scaring them lifeless informed him about the remains of the planet. In agreement with their new naming system, he dubbed the new world to be Remnant, and its dark monsters were christened Creatures of Grimm.

He then continued his search for Bumblebee. He finally came to where Bee was, crushed under a boulder, low on power and battle-worn. In his yellow arms was the numerous Sparks belonging to the last of the Autobots and any more Cybertronians he came across.

"Bumblebee," Optimus spoke softly. The blue glow to Bee's eyes flickered as he looked up to see the Prime.

"Optimus," Bee said, no longer speaking through the radio. "You're back."

"Relax, old friend," said Prime as he knelt before Bee. "What happened to you?"

"That Grimm-dragon got to me," Bee explained. "Dropped a boulder on my head, trapped me under it for a good ten months. I can't use my legs anymore. At least I saved their Sparks."

"That you did, Bee. Well done. Don't move, I'm going to move this boulder."

"That won't be necessary, sir," Bee denied Optimus's offer. "I've held on long enough to see you return. That's the only thing that kept me going, Prime."

"Bumblebee," Prime began. "I won't let you die, not like this."

"I-it's been an honor… serving with you." With these last words, Bumblebee powered down one last time. Optimus stayed there, shocked that his long-standing companion had died right in front of him. Just like Ironhide had. At least he was now with the Arcee sister whose death had broken him.

"Rest in peace, old friend." Optimus took the Sparks near his ally, as well as the one in Bee's chest, and placed them among the Matrix of Leadership and his own Spark.

He heard a large dragon roar nearby. The Prime rose, proceeding to draw the sword he had for so long, and turned to face his adversary.

"You," Optimus addressed the black dragon. "You took too many lives. However this ends, it ends today."

" _So be it_ ," the dragon's voice echoed in Optimus's mind. " _You will not survive today_."

"If I die, I will take you with me," the Prime shouted, bringing a shield around his facial region and drawing his shield. He charged the great dragon, slashing and hacking at the beast as it bit and clawed at his own chassis. Eventually, the beast was too tired to go on, as was Optimus. The last surviving Cybertronian, however, had one last trick up his sleeve.

"You know not who you fight," Optimus shouted as he charged the Matrix of Leadership. The dragon laughed, sounding like a growl.

" _Neither do you_ ," it responded. It dove at him, bleeding from the belly in the meantime. " _It's time for you to die_."

"Then let me give you one last thing to remember me by," Optimus growled as his chest cavity opened, revealing the Matrix glowing in all its glory. The Prime punched the dragon and slammed it into a nearby hill. With one powerful blast, the Matrix unleashed all its energy in one bright blue blast, burying the dragon in a mountain and sealing it in a tomb of stone. Optimus felt its dark presence still living inside the new mountain, but he knew it wouldn't bother any more humans for some time. The Matrix powered down so far that it began draining power from the numerous Sparks in his chest as it returned to him, including his own.

He unburied Bumblebee and took him to a nearby field several miles from the mountain the Matrix created. As his final acts on Earth, Optimus recorded a log of all events he'd went through, explaining the history of Earth/Remnant, inserting Hound's logs, and created a tomb of sorts for himself, Bumblebee, and the numerous Sparks within him. The tomb looked like an Aztec pyramid combined with a Greek Parthenon, which was the structure of the numerous Tombs of the Primes dotted around Cybertron. The Sparks were set in statues which resembled each Cybertronian they belonged to. Bumblebee received a separate tomb above the room which held the Sparks and the Matrix of Leadership. He made sure to place the records in a place near the pedestal of the Matrix, surrounded by the statues of the Sparks. Finally, he created a sarcophagus for himself, which he laid in until his Spark left him, which floated to a statue of him with the massive sword of his in its hands. The remaining Energon inside of him flowed into the Earth beneath the Tomb of Sparks, which eventually combined with small crystals to create what is now known as Dust. On top of that, Optimus placed a blessing on the Matrix: whoever retrieved the Matrix would be the next Prime, the son of Optimus Prime. Little did he know how literal that was, as the Tomb of Sparks created a radiation field that reached a nearby warrior trying to protect his family. Combined with the new Aura and his Semblance, he was a mighty man indeed. Optimus's new lineage had begun its course.

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4 months before the Great War (4338 AD)…

A team of scientists finally entered the Tomb of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, eventually finding the recording he left for them to discover. They learned much of his people, as well as the history of Earth; upon hearing of the Matrix of Leadership, however, their hearts were filled with greed, and they immediately began conspiring plans against one another. This brought Grimm into the Tomb of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, which killed the greedy scientists. More scientists entered, preceded by Huntsmen to destroy the Grimm, and discovered the recording. These scientists remained faithful to their craft, eventually safely discovering the Tomb of Sparks; the men did not understand, however, that Megatron had impure intentions, and took his Spark as well as that of Optimus. Thankfully, they did not find the Matrix, which was unrecognizable to their human eyes. The team made note of the place and returned to their home in Mantle, Schnee Dust Company Headquarters to be precise. A young Wilhelm Schnee overheard talk of the incident and made note of it for future reference.

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Thirty-five years after the Great War…

Maxwell Cerulean waited for the men to leave. He was the descendant of a very powerful warrior made even more powerful by the appearance of this 'temple' structure. Despite them becoming very disrespectful, dishonorable people, he was determined to right their wrongs; they were adamant that other humans and even Faunus were lesser beings than they and deserved worship. He, on the other hand, was more honorable than they and brought aid to those who asked, fought for the defenseless, and generally made other people's lives better while accepting his own the way it was.

As soon as the men left, Maxwell rose and darted through the archway. At 12 years old, he wasn't too tall, so it was easy for him to fit through the 8-foot doorway. He made sure to hide in the shadows to stay hidden from anyone remaining in the structure. He felt strange symbols on the wall he was leaning on; turning, he saw that the language was unreadable, being full of strange lines and odd symbols. Somehow, it shifted its characters around to read perfect Valean: "In these catacombs lie the Hearts of several brave warriors. Their Souls have reunited with the Allspark."

" _Allspark_ ," Maxwell pondered aloud. "What the heck is that?"

He proceeded down the hallway towards a large room with a single large stone box. It, too, was lined with the cryptic lettering, which transformed into Valean: "Here lies Optimus Prime, a great leader and greater Prime."

Whatever a 'Prime' was, this guy was pretty good. Regardless, why would he need such a big coffin?

"Okay," Max muttered. "How do I open you without breaking anything?"

Suddenly, a human-sized door opened on the side and lit up the inside. Despite not trusting the inside of the box, Max entered. What he saw inside was terrifying: it was a large man-like body with red flames painted on a blue background. He climbed on top of the body to see if there was a real man inside the metal chassis, but there wasn't. Was this Optimus Prime?

"This can't be real," Max whispered as he climbed down. He exited the box as silently as possible. He proceeded to sneak around to another chamber with yet another large stone box. The characters on the side repeated what the others did and read as follows: "Here lies Bumblebee, a brave young warrior who served beside Optimus Prime unto the end."

What a strange name, 'Bumblebee'. Though this box was considerably smaller than the one holding Optimus, it was still too large to hold a normal man. Max imagined it was similar to the Optimus body but with yellow and black instead of blue and red. He refused to enter the box, but still admired the thought of what the two were capable of in their time. The young boy continued on.

Eventually, he found a massive set of double doors leading to another chamber. Despite being small enough to crawl around if he desired, he was unable to sneak through the door without being noticed. Nobody saw him, but somehow the door felt his presence. Valean text appeared on the door: "Tomb of Sparks" before opening a much smaller entry way.

Max explored the massive statues, many of which were stone wearing off to reveal metal; this made him realize that everything here was programmed, powered metal and electronics. Most of the statues had small glowing shards of metal encased in them.

The statues all had inscriptions on the bases of them describing who they were and what they did.

The fat one representing a strange soldier with a cigar in his mouth and quad-barreled Gatling gun, the Samurai, and one who looked like a parajumper: "Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs, warriors who battled against Galvatron."

Bumblebee stood with an obvious medic, weapons expert, and sleek lieutenant: "Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz, four heroes who arrived to Earth with Optimus."

Four female-shaped statues stood together: "The Arcee sisters: Arcee, Chromia, Elita-One, and Ferraria, three who arrived with the second wave of Autobots, the fourth who gave her life to save several humans."

Then there were two chubby-looking twins and a sleek assassin: "Mudflap, Skids, and Sideswipe, heroes who aided in the battle against the Fallen."

There were a couple of chubby ones and two ranger-types who looked to be made for breaking things: "Topspin, Roadbuster, and Leadfoot, wreckers who fought in the final battle against the Decepticons."

Two smaller ones who looked like smaller steampunk statues of homeless people: "Wheelie and Brains, Decepticon deserters who helped battle Decepticons in the final battle."

An Einstein-ey fellow was found with a broken metal shard. No information outside of being an inventor was given.

Finally, there was Optimus himself, shown standing while holding a massive red and blue sword, the metal shard in his chest glowing brighter than all the others.

In the middle of the room stood a small stone block, most likely designed to hold something. As Maxwell came closer, its language became understandable: "The one who next wields the Matrix of Leadership shall become the next Prime, the son of Optimus Prime."

"The Matrix of Leadership," Max asked himself. He was impossibly intelligent for his age, but even he knew nothing of any Matrix, or any mythical objects outside of the most famous ones for that matter. "Let me guess: pure heart and great courage. And it can even give the user unimaginable power, right? *Sigh* I've heard too many of those."

Almost immediately, the statue of Optimus Prime started moving, automating as if to defend some invisible relic.

"Courage test," Max guessed, unfazed by the moving machine.

"Correct," a deep, gruff voice echoed around the room. The small exit closed, locking Max in. "If you are truly worthy to wield the Matrix of Leadership, to become the next Prime, you must show true courage in battle. This is the first of three tests."

Immediately, the machine swung the sword in a downwards stroke at Max. He leaped out of the way just before it struck the metal floor. Having been worked into unlocking his Aura and Semblance at a seriously young age, his entire body turned into metal and expanded until he was as tall as a Bullhead. With ease, he extended a blade from his left forearm and swung to block the next strike.

The attack turned into an all-out duel between pure machine and metal boy. The machine was larger and stronger than Max, who was having difficulties trying to defend himself even in his metal form. Cerulean was starting to doubt his chances of survival, even fearing for his life, when a dark thought entered his mind. His family was crafty, and would do anything for a relic as powerful as what he thought the Matrix was be, especially with becoming as powerful as Optimus probably was. There were also bounty hunters and fallen Huntsmen and Huntresses who would use it for evil purposes if they ever got their hands on such an artifact. Max refused to let anyone obtain such a power and pushed himself beyond his capabilities.

His chest started glowing, sending bright blue light throughout the creaks and crevices of his titanium-colored body. The Optimus automaton was partially blinded by the bright light as Max grew taller. Inside his chest was now a bright blue shard of metal, and his body armor was now bright white and golden. The eyes of his new form shone a bright yellow as he pushed the Optimus machine back. Swing after swing, Max pushed Optimus back to where it initially was until he was finally able to strike it in the head, signifying a lethal strike. The automaton stopped, then returned to its initial stance after a few seconds to register the victory.

"Well done," the voice spoke once more. "You have shown great courage in the face of adversity and battle. Now comes the next test: the purity of your heart. The Sparks of Bumblebee, Ferraria, and Megatron shall show your darkness and light."

The Sparks for Bumblebee and Ferraria began to glow brightly, finally projecting a human image in a holographic model before each statue. The statue for another machine, one whose name read "Megatron", began to glow a violent red, showing the form of a Beowolf.

"These two humans are convicted of treason against an oppressive but great king," the voice tested. Immediately, the bright yellow holograms of a crown, sword, and key appeared before Optimus, the source of the voice. "Their sentence: death by Grimm. Choose: loyalty to the crown and let them die; kill them yourself; release them and make them defend themselves; or free and defend them. You have ten seconds."

Almost immediately, Max—now back in his human form—took this opportunity to take the sword and kill the Beowolf but did not free the humans. He then looked at the golden crown and saw that it was inlaid with much jewelry, compared it to the humans, one of whom was in rich clothes and well-fed, the other being dressed in rags and was starving. He saved the poor, but left the rich to his own devices. The holograms faded into nothingness.

"You first killed the Grimm," Optimus commented. "But then paused to compare the crown and humans, and freed only one of them. Why is that?"

"The sentence was unjust in the first place," Max explained. "But I needed to see why each did what they did. The rich one probably did so in greed, whereas the poor committed for desperation. I left the rich because he had the resources to save himself. The poor did not, so I freed him." The Optimus statue nodded before freezing once more.

"A wise choice," he spoke. "You have passed your second test. Now for the third and final test to commence."

A strange object designed in an even stranger fashion rose from the pedestal. Three holographic images, one of Megatron, one of Optimus, and one of Max, appeared.

"This is the test of intention and humility," Optimus said through his holographic form. The lips actually moved, which really impressed Max. "Megatron was my enemy, the one who desired control over the Matrix, the Allspark, the reconstruction of our home world at the cost of yours, and the domination of your world in the first place. He was also my brother."

Max took what he realized was the Matrix of Leadership and, instead of placing it in his own hologram, put it in Optimus's form. He was embarrassed to give it to the hologram of a dead guy, but he felt it would be safer in the hands of the last holder.

"I'm not worthy for this," Max explained. "But I do know other humans and Faunus alike who are far less deserving." Optimus's hologram nodded.

"I felt the same way when I became a Prime," he agreed. "But I accepted my heritage to stop a greater evil. Are you willing to do the same for your people?"

"For all people, really, but yes. Yes I am."

"You have passed your third test," Optimus spoke as the holograms faded. "You are worthy to behold the Matrix. Before you do anything else, I have a singular question to ask of you: how were you able to unlock the power of my race?"

"That's my Semblance," Max responded. "It came from several generations ago, about two millennia ago, before Dust was discovered. Ignis Cerulean was the first with our Semblance. We've lived by this tomb-thing for several generations now."

"Then you truly are the next Prime," Optimus answered after a short pause. This left Max confused until all the Sparks in the room began to glow, as well as the Matrix itself. Max's Semblance activated out of his control, revealing the shard in his own chest glowing a bright blue.

"By the power bestowed upon me by my ancestors, the first Primes," Prime's voice spoke as several more, much deeper voices synchronized with his, "And by the power of the Allspark, I grant you the power of your ancestors, the Primes. From this day forth, I, Optimus Prime, hereby declare you a Prime."

The glow and energy from the Sparks and Matrix began to slowly enter Max's body, changing him from within as his armor began to change.

"Orion Pax became Optimus Prime upon his acceptance of his heritage," the deeper voices said without Optimus's voice, now coming from the Matrix itself. "No longer shall you be known as Maxwell Cerulean. You are now our last descendant… Maximus Prime."

 **End**

* * *

 **A/N: I think I jumped the gun there. Seriously though, I kind of intended Optimus to be too weak to beat that dragon. I don't think the Matrix of Leadership works like that, but it** _ **is**_ **a pretty powerful artifact, so I think Optimus hasn't learned all its tricks by the end of the third or fourth movies. Hopefully Michael Bay gets The Last Knight right (yes, he's coming out with that; June 2017, so excited).**

 **Anyway, I still think I jumped around a little too much. I'll go back and read it later. Right now, by the time I'm finishing it, I've got to celebrate my 18th. So far, it's been filled with skillets: Awake and Unleashed albums by Skillet on a USB drive; the Alive album itself in CD format; and a nonstick skillet. How hilarious.**

 **This story has been a nice change in pace from my other stories like the Musketeer mantra one. Speaking of which, I need to get back on top of that one.**

 **And now I've got nothing else to do with my life other than be bored and relax. Texas, out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Let me respond to a review or two right quick.**

 **Guest: To be fair, no one was even around to find the recordings, and the Tomb of Sparks was pretty much impossible to get into without some serious manpower (which Atlas, and therefore the SDC, have an abundance of). So it's not like the recordings were 'public'; in fact, those from Hound were meant for Optimus, and Optimus meant his recordings for whomever he deemed worthy and those who were reasonably curious (people like Ozpin).**

 **awesomerebel55: Well of course it needs some work, I'm only 18. The idea of an interplanetary speech with the technology levels of Remnant is sort of not-really-possible. However, that does give me an idea…. Cue lightbulb. Idea confirmed. Thanks AR-55 (mind if I call you that?).**

 **To place this current set of events, the beginning part is set 2 years before Initiation (when Ruby's a freshman in Signal), the middle is mere months prior to Initiation (around the time of the 'trailers'), and the last bit is about half a year after the beginning bit of this chapter (around Vol 3 Ep 7). Setting set. I think…**

 **Disclaimer in Ch. 1. Initial warning in Ch. 1. You have been warned and disclaimed. Wait… what?**

* * *

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/Transformers Crossover Fanfiction

Chapter 1: Gigatron Rises, a Knight Falls

* * *

Wilhelm Schnee personally led the research division for the mysterious shards of metal found in the strange tomb. So far, experiments have proven fruitless, but when given a power source one of the shards began to react strangely. Lately he's been inviting his eldest daughter Winter to join the research, especially today. For today, the team would be performing the final experiment: they would be providing the shard with a permanent power source and placing it in an Atlesian Knight. At this time, the shard had just been given the new power source.

"Reaction normal," said the lead scientist from within the lab. The Schnees themselves were in a viewing area, watching the process from afar. "Now placing shard in the Knight."

When the men in hazmat suits placed the round power core containing the shard inside the chest of the Knight, the machine reacted with the shard in the strangest way: despite being powered down, the Knight came to life and began shaking violently, making strange noises the entire time. Wilhelm's eyes widened as the robot stopped rattling and began transforming. The dull gunmetal gray turned into red-lined silver as the eyes of the machine became more eye-like. After the reaction, the machine looked far more humanoid than it was initially designed to be. What surprised them all was when the machine spoke.

"What worthless facility am I in," it said with a growling voice which reminded Wilhelm of a demon in horror movies but hundreds of times more terrifying. Wilhelm walked over to the microphone in the viewing area and spoke to the machine.

"That is classified knowledge," said the oldest Schnee. A dark growl emanated from the machine.

"Classified to whom as what," it demanded.

"Classified to me as top secret," the man responded. The experiment chuckled, sounding even more demonic in so doing.

"That means nothing to me, fleshling," was the drone's words before attempting to break loose from its Lightning Dust alloy restraints. "I deserve to know where I am after you revived me."

"I think we deserve to know just what you are first," Wilhelm answered. Another chuckle echoed through the lab.

"I go by many names, fleshling," it began. "Some call me Master, others Great Menace. Only a few made the mistake to call me Servant. You humans called me a machine at first before you graciously revived me the second time. If I remember correctly, you named my second body 'Galvatron'. I don't know what you call me now, but my race called me a great destroyer, Megatron.

"I once watched over your pitiful race in envy after my second revival," Megatron continued. "Then you created that blasted dragon, and I became naught but folklore. I assume Optimus defeated it after it annihilated my body; else you would not be here. Or is this only a few years after my second fall?"

"Who is this 'Optimus'," Wilhelm demanded. General Ironwood walked in at that moment.

"He is my enemy, a weakling of a Prime defending you fleshlings," Mega/Galva-Tron answered. "All I ever wanted was the survival of our race under my rule, but he fought against us with his wretched auto-bots and defeated me twice. He left your planet the same day he defeated Lockdown, some odd fellow who tried to tell us that our race were all but creations of a master race of some kind. Since that dragon creature is no longer destroying in sight, I assume he returned.

"But that is unimportant," Megatron snapped. "Why are you humans so adamant in knowing these things? More importantly, why do you insist on asking me? I thrice tried to destroy your world, after all."

"We are men of science," Wilhelm explained. "It is our duty to ask such questions."

"Of course you are. Now will you describe Remnant, or must I continue purging your technology network for the knowledge I asked for?"

The scientists in the room were in shock at the advancement of this machine already, but this was the nail in the coffin. Ironwood and Wilhelm both internally decided that this 'Megatron' character was too dangerous to be kept alive any longer. A large Dust cannon rose from beneath the raised observation room as all scientists in the lab scrambled to explosive-proof glass protection. At the push of a button, the Megatron machine was no more. At least, that was the initial plan—Megatron absorbed the Dust blast and further evolved with its power, becoming more human in form by the second. After the final transformation, Megatron looked like he was more human than machine, just a little too well-armored. Furthermore, it looked as if the shard in its chest was now glowing red instead of blue. When it spoke, it no longer sounded like it was Megatron, but rather a human voice combined with that of Megatron.

"Now I am become Gigatron," the newly-born son of Megatron growled. "Destroyer of all worlds. Bow before my power."

Gigatron broke out of the lab and ran at full steam towards Vale. Unbeknownst to all the scientists and officers, a young Weiss Schnee saw the entire incident from a hiding place she'd found and been trapped in for the duration of the experiment.

* * *

Maxwell Cerulean disowned his family only a couple of years after he became the owner of the Matrix of Leadership. He took on the name Maximus Prime, as the Primes called him. Now, five years after the incident, he had greater control of his 'Semblance', or his Prime form as he called it. Technically his Semblance was a massive one, but he actually only had a small one with great power: the power of the Matrix.

As of late, he'd recently graduated from Signal Academy at the top of his class. Nearly a month passed since graduation when he felt a great unease. His heart which became the blue Spark in his chest felt a heavy weight bear down on it. Several weights, actually; several of those weights, those pressures, were good in nature, somewhat guilty for the death of something now reborn, but one was far more powerful. That one was so powerful that it made him feel weak. It felt as if someone who had died had just risen from the dead by means of a supernatural force. Even worse, he felt as though someone he knew took the soul of the deceased into their own body.

' _Optimus_ ,' Maximus spoke to the former Prime through his Spark. ' _What is this dreadful feeling, and why is it here, now?_ '

" _I do not know_ ," Optimus answered after a few moments of silence. " _Perhaps Megatron has finally been reborn into your world. Regardless, keep an eye out; I doubt this presence will side with us._ "

' _Understood_ ,' Max responded before continuing down his path. Whatever was going on, it was far more powerful than the presence of Megatron, even than the mere mention of the Dragon Optimus spoke of. If this were to become a problem, Max needed another Prime to aid him in a battle.

* * *

Like the Primes, the Knights of Virtue were great warriors blessed with a portion of the power of Optimus Prime. When the Prime died, his sword split into 8 blades, the Matrix into 9 shards: the swords each received a Matrix shard, reserving the final Matrix shard for the next Prime. These blades were made to seek out men with a mighty virtue, each one different from the rest. The first Knights of Virtue were Knighted on a day when the Maidens were accused of heresy and sentenced to death in the home village of the Knights. The Knights rescued the Maidens and split to defend one Maiden with two Knights.

The Blades of Virtue were united with the powers of their respective Matrices, tied to their Knights by the Virtues each Knight possessed. The blades were as follows: Justice; Faith; Chivalry; Honesty; Honor; Courage; Hope; and Sacrifice. The owner of each respective blade shared their strongest Virtue with the Virtue of each blade and gave each blade power accordingly—for example, the Blade of Courage was attracted to men with great courage, and the man with the greatest courage would give it the greatest strength. The blades would also empower each Knight with the same power the blades gain from each owner.

Solomon Arc was born blind, yet from his great faith he received new sight (A/N: his senses are so keen that it's like a second pair of eyes, but he's still legally blind) when he became the Knight of Faith at 16. As such, he was designated to guard the Fall Maiden on her journeys alongside the Knight of Honesty. No one believed he could do such a thing, but he proved them wrong when he dueled the Knight of Courage only weeks after he was Knighted, beating his opponent without so much as looking in his direction. Now, 4 years after his initial knighting, he was almost stronger than all of the other Knights, yet trusted beyond even the Maidens.

As of now, he was guiding the Fall Maiden, Amber, alone—since the Knight of Honesty was away, he was to guard the Maiden wherever she went. Not that he had a problem with it, as he'd developed a sort of courtship with the woman, as well as being able to handle himself in a fight. He guided the horse along, smiling as he went.

Suddenly, she asked him to stop despite the path being clear. He nodded and brought the horse to a stop.

"What is it, milady," the 20 year old Knight asked the Maiden. She knelt along the side of the path and held out an apple to what seemed to be nothing to his eyes. He knew she could see what he could not, but he had a dark suspicion that something or someone else was watching them, after a power which was not theirs. Mere seconds after she knelt, he noticed it: three figures surrounding the two, weapons drawn as if ready to attack at any moment. One held a Grimm-like parasite presumably to drain the Aura from one entity to the master of the creature. He immediately realized what was going on: the attackers were using a visual Semblance to distract Amber so they could strike her in the blind spot.

"I sense an ambush, milady," Solomon stated hurriedly, slightly concerned for her safety. "A sensory Semblance is affecting your vision. I suggest we move along immediately."

As soon as he said those words, the female controlling the Semblance made her move, only to be blocked by a mighty blue Blade of Virtue.

"I sense the parasite," the Knight warned. "I know what it can do. I shall not let you succeed in your goal."

He tossed the psychic away before charging a young man with prosthetic weaponized legs and went for a swift jab to the gut, which the man predictably blocked with both legs to save his life while risking injury. Clearly this young man was unconcerned with his own well-being. Solomon sensed Amber powering up the powers of the Fall Maiden, and he mistakenly relaxed, placing his full faith in her survival. Unbeknownst to him, an enemy came behind him undetected, a sword of his own in hand.

A sharp pain tore through Solomon's chest, tearing his lungs and diaphragm. Someone's lips came close to his left ear to whisper.

"Faith is an illusion," a rattling voice spoke, sounding somewhat inhuman. "To have faith is to trick the mind and soul into believing what might be a falsehood. Your faith and might are great because your heart and mind are weak fools who feel the need for knowledge despite the risk of betrayal. Putting your whole faith in a falsehood could cost you your life. If you survive, know this: faith is deadly without wisdom. Even a fool knows that."

The blade twisted, shredding Solomon's heart and stomach, ripping open numerous arteries, breaking bones and pulverizing flesh before withdrawing from Solomon's chest.

The Blade of Faith fell to the ground with a clatter as the Knight fell to his knees. The world began to fade around him as the parasite began draining his beloved of her Aura. He knew he could do nothing about it, so he only made one last promise of faith.

"Someday, a man will stand victorious over you," Solomon swore. "He will hold a blade stronger than even a Maiden with her two Knights. With my dying breath, I curse you to be slain by a Blade of Unity, held by a man of Virtue beyond all doubt. He shall seem weak to you, but by his blade you shall be slain, and your evil will fall to his sword."

'Do me proud, Brother,' Solomon thought as he began to fade from this world, coughing up blood and bits of torn flesh. 'Bring peace to this world at last… Jaune Arc.'

 **End**

* * *

 **A/N: Damnation that was dark. It went from simply machines killing machines to men recreating Megatron and finally outright murder of two lovers. I hope that last bit made at least some sense, what with the Knights and all. And in terms of the Matrix breaking into nine pieces, it's actually the full Matrix, not the Matrix of Leadership; the Matrix of Leadership/Primes is stronger than all of them, but the Matrices of the Virtues are essentially the power Optimus gains as a Knight when he drew the sword in the fourth Bay movie. The last enemy featured in this chapter is none other than the one I literally just created at the beginning. I have a plan for Jaune, and it'll actually come as one big shock.**

 **I think that's about everything story-wise. In other news, I've officially posted my first eBook to Amazon Kindle (sadly for 99 cents, but there wasn't a 'free' option). Also, on 9/11, I'm going to post a Speedpaint video to YouTube in commemoration of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers about 15 years ago, hopefully followed by a bit of a pep talk on the channel (Channel Name: "Joshua Clark (Face-First Gaming)" excluding quotation marks). You'll see it when I post it.**

 **Damn it all, I've just put myself into a dark mood. You guys already know the drill, so I guess I'll see you all next chapter. Texas, out.**


	3. Chapter 3

***Edited Jan 10, 2017***

 **Disclaimer in the first chapter, warning in both. You've been warned, disclaimed, and warned again. Hmm, I still don't think I'm saying that right.**

 **Adding to the disclaimer, there *might* be a Godzilla reference here or there. Maybe in the form of a character. Also, the Grim Reaper comes along in a rather unexpected way. And the Devil's Bounty Hunter/greatest rival comes in a new form (no longer flaming, but burning nonetheless).**

* * *

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/Transformers Crossover Fanfiction

Chapter 2: Freedom, Innocence, and Law

* * *

"I already told you, I don't want any trouble," said Gekido Hagane (A/N: I used Google translate, two different words: 'raging' and 'steel'). "I'm just here to pay respects."

"Ya think I give a shit," one of the hooligans surrounding Gekido answered. "'F you wanna talk to some dead boy, ya gotta pay up front."

"You say that as if I brought my wallet," smiled Hagane. "I'm very forgetful about that." The boy who appeared to be the head honcho started fuming upon hearing this.

"Yo, Pipes," the impatient teen called to one of his underlings. "Search the kitty-eater."

Not a single hand made its way to Gekido before the kid was sent soaring into the Hagane burial grounds. The hooligans barely had a chance to react before Gekido transformed into a primal beast once thought to be a god. Three rows of sharp spinal plates extended out of his back and along the backsides of his arms as his head elongated and flattened slightly, sharp teeth replacing the human teeth. Skin was replaced with grey scales, muscles expanded beyond humanly possible, and a 5-foot tail extended from his spine. In fifteen seconds, Gekido had transformed into Gojira, the beast portrayed in so many horror movies… but Hagane was a much smaller version, only reaching 8' 4" and 1135 kilograms.

The gangster-wannabes scrambled away in pure fear as Gekido smiled, baring his razor-sharp fangs. Gekido burst out laughing as he morphed back into his human form, Godzilla hoodie returning in pristine condition as his blue jeans reformed through his strange Aura.

"Stay away from the burial grounds, you maniacs!" Gekido shouted after the terrified teens. The Hagane child sighed as he remembered why he came along to begin with: the Hagane family had sacrificed their lineage to ensure that the physical manifestation of the Kaiju known as Gojira would refrain from destroying mankind; the deal went along the lines of 'one from each generation would be host to the Kaiju to ensure that he sees the World' or something like that. Since Gekido was the chosen from his generation, he felt a serious honor-bound rage when he learned that his family's burial grounds were barred off by these hooligans.

He felt a tug on his soul, telling him that it was time to leave, to return to Vale. Gekido turned to face the burial grounds, then nodded and held a thumb up simply to be unorthodox. He turned away and left Tekkō Toshi, taking his things and traveling to Vale lightly.

* * *

Markos di Angelo was a powerful man. They say he could use his scythe to kill a man in a hundred different ways outside of the usual slicing and stabbing. He was such a legend that he became known as the Grim Reaper, slayer of all who opposed him. Evan di Angelo was not like that man, despite his ability to wield a scythe. See, he preferred the modern way of killing to an oversized farm tool.

Known as the White Reaper, Evan dressed in dominantly white and gold to symbolize his innocent and silly personality and his pure and good-natured intentions. While he did have silver eyes, they weren't like the legends say they were: in fact, they weren't even an asset to him. What most men remembered about him was his eyes, but not because of their normal color: they were revered for their color when he was enraged. See, his eyes turned a harsh gunmetal gray when he was driven to his breaking point, turning a pure black when pushed beyond that point.

The other thing he was known for was his assault rifle/scythe, the White Reaper, hence his name the 'White Reaper'. The rifle itself had a grenade launcher attached to the bottom of the barrel, and could empty a 40-round clip in about two or three seconds; thankfully, it used Fire Dust to ignite mini-bullets and thusly had more like a 400-round clip. On the other hand, its secondary form split the gun in two, giving each half an equal length of each barrel and magazine, and gave each a 2-foot scythe blade aligned with the barrels; they could be handheld or conjoined to make either a dual-sided sickle-sword or a long cavalry sword with built-in guns. Then there was the mega-scythe form, which took the barrels and turned them into either handles or stabilizers, and put each blade at one end of the now-6 foot armored tube; even in this stage, it could still fire in both directions as either offensive weapons or accelerants. He also had bladed arm gauntlets (which he rarely used to begin with) which he uses to extend the twin blades of his scythe.

Like his father's black uniform, Evan wore a white t-shirt underneath a silver-trimmed white armored vest with clasps at the front; a pair of white and silver armored pants with a matching belt and a pair of gold and silver boots, which rarely ever showed; an armored white jacket with a gold-trimmed hood; and a gold- and silver-trimmed twin-tailed leather trench coat lined with small-link chain mail. Unlike his father, he also wore an external shoulder belt to holster White Reaper when not in use.

His reputation as a Reaper was rather low, as he was one of the younger Reapers. Despite this, he was always more than capable of swinging around his 30-pound mega-scythe. He'd even accomplished several feats of his own, including taking on several Ursai with a box of kittens in one hand. Still, even amongst the Reaper crowd everyone thought he was weak because of his thinness and his minimal Aura.

Perhaps most unusual of all was his lack of an Aura, a phenomenon unknown even among the weakest of humans. What he lacked in Aura, he made up for in his highly powerful energy form: Vis, the energy held within Nature and its bond to humans. All humans had it, as it powered the natures of their Auras—while he did not have much Aura, it was probably the most powerful and dense Lightning Aura around. He could even draw in Vis from the area, no matter the natural Element of the Vis; even so, he found it easier to draw from Lightning-elemental Vis. Since Vis and Aura were so similar, Vis could emulate Aura to act as a regenerator.

Tonight he was on the rooftops, waiting for a moment to strike. Evan was about to fall asleep when he sensed a strong presence of Tainted Vis, a powerful source of evil in the world of Vis. He immediately darted over, using his energized Aura and drawing Vis from the air to replenish his Aura. Along with this, he attracted his internal Vis energy to his hands so that he would be ready to give any opponents a shocking experience.

When he reached the point, he landed on a corner of a roof and squatted down. He drew in a slight amount of natural Vis nearby to locate the dark energy. It seemed to be coming from a small store below called 'From Dust Till Dawn', and didn't seem all that powerful; in fact, the most it could've been was a big-shot criminal with a band of men just doing what they were hired for. Then why did it feel like there was a darker, more sinister presence closer by?

All of a sudden, the far right window shattered when a young girl around his age came flying out like a shell out of a tank cannon. She wore mostly black and red, most notably a red cloak with a hood. Honestly, she reminded him of a Reaper who constantly dueled him and called him their rival. He had no idea who that 'rival' guy was, but she somehow reminded him of the kid. The Taint wasn't coming from her either, so it had to be that criminal from inside. But the Taint emanating from him was weak compared to what he felt.

" _Looking for something_ ," a voice whispered in his ear, surprising him to the point where he leapt off of his vantage point and to the ground below. White Reaper flew to his hand as the magnetic side of his Aura activated, and he leveled the weapon at the place where he was. Not two inches from where he stood, there was a tall, skinny boy wearing a black cloak with… well, he wore black everything. The only thing that wasn't black was his eyes, and they glowed a bright red as the strange entity glared down at him. Evan returned the glare as Lightning Vis entered his eyes and emitted a white electric shine.

"Okay, bub," di Angelo muttered to himself. "Stay over there, and no one'll get hurt; try that again and I'll cleave you in two. Now on to whatever's going on over here."

He turned to face the Taint within the criminal, only to see the strange man standing in the space of the broken window, grinning with jagged teeth stained yellow with blood. That would give Evan nightmares for a good long while. Immediately he decided to ignore the dark figure until the other source of Taint was taken care of.

"Okay, this is getting a bit impossible," the criminal, wearing a white suit and black top hat over his orange hair. "Just go and get 'em, and try _not_ to get too beaten up over this; I'd rather not have to pay for any funerals any time soon."

"You say that as if I'll kill you," Evan noticed, then proceeded to joke around with it. "But if you really want me, the son of the Grimm Reaper, to send you to an early grave, then by all means. Ask away, and you'll get your wish."

The men in those monotonous black suits and red sunglasses seemed to hesitate, but they eventually came after him as if their lives were worth less than the money they were offered. Di Angelo rolled his eyes as he leveled White Reaper at the group and sprayed about sixty mini-rounds at them, knocking them all out in almost three seconds flat. Of course he wouldn't intentionally kill anyone; he'd rather let his father do the killing. Then again, he didn't even want his father to kill anyone.

"I was being sarcastic, gosh darn it," the White Reaper complained. "Dad's the one who'll kill you. Then again, I doubt he'll even ask before he kills you."

"Well, kids," the criminal said somewhat dully. "This has been a pretty fantastic evening, what with how long these guys lasted. And as much as I'd love to stick around, I'm afraid _this_ —," his cane opened up on one end to reveal a barrel, "is where we part ways."

He pulled the trigger and let loose a Dust Flare, which Evan easily shot to smithereens with White Reaper. The young Reaper sensed the Taint following the criminal to a ladder on a nearby building; he groaned with frustration as his assault rifle transformed into its twin bladed-pistol form. He didn't even bother to wait for the girl, who literally stopped and asked the shopkeeper if she could go after the crook. His Aura made him fly by reversing his magnetic attraction to the ground and increasing and decreasing the magnetic push below him (also known as defying physics with physics).

Things pretty much went chaotic from there, as the girl from earlier did stupid, an airship came from out of nowhere, a Huntress followed the way of the airship, and the Taint figure returned and teleported via the natural Taint in the area. That figure almost worried Evan, as Taint tended to both attract and spawn Grimm and other creatures of darkness.

* * *

" _Uno mas_ ," cried several voices as they drank to their hearts' contents. Chugging chants and competitions could be seen all throughout these parts of town. Rosso ignored these chants, cries, and shanties. As a matter of fact, he didn't particularly care about any of that. The Spirit within him compelled him to go elsewhere, as a major sinner and potential demon host was in the region. The target was in a nightclub, guilty for several murders, muggings, and quite the count of rapes.

' _Alright, Rosso,_ ' the Rider told his mind as he entered the building. ' _We're here for Krosso, the serial rapist and murderer. Act natural, don't get too cocky, and we'll be through before you know it. We can turn in the body later._ '

'There's no real reason to go and burn his soul, you know,' Rosso Caserta told the Ghost Rider. 'The court has already gone ahead and gone through a trial, and he's currently on Death Row.'

' _This isn't court justice,_ ' the Spirit of Vengeance reminded Caserta. ' _This is the justice of God here, and his form of justice is a foretaste of what's waiting for them in Hell. Consider it a favor for the executioners, like we're doing their dirty work for them._ '

'Yeah, but can't we just drag him to the office and _then_ burn his soul for them?'

' _If we did that, they'd have to pay us, and they'd rather charge us with murder and make_ us _pay_ them _. It's not right, but it is how it is. Now let's get a move on._ '

The pair eventually sat down in the arranged location. They'd made a deal with some girl for information on someone's whereabouts. She'd be the 'bait', where she'd knock him right into them and save them a lot of time and effort in the court system. It would be considered a defensive killing on the soul-burning part, and they'd leave the duo/trio alone.

' _Here she is_ ,' Rider said. ' _Coming down the stairs as I speak._ '

The young woman, Yang Xiao Long, sat on a stool right next to the Ghost Rider/host pair. She gave him a wink to signify that she was ready.

Krosso, playing the part of bartender in hopes that he could strike again, started coming over as Yang and Rosso set the trap in the form of a conversation.

Yang played the part of a hot, nearly drunk, and tired young (and frankly underage) woman trying to flirt with the Rider. Rosso acted as a rough and tough teen trying out new things for his age, including drinking and possibly the horizontal tango. Yang intentionally had a shot of whiskey to give her a light buzz to make it seem more realistic. The bartender, in exchange for information on the guy, a share in the money, and him giving the duo information on their respective topics (in Yang's case it was her missing mother, the demons who murdered his father for Rosso), he let her have the shot but kept a close eye on her and refused to let her drive anywhere until the buzz faded.

As expected, Edward Krosso came over and offered Yang a drink. She declined him, saying she felt like she shouldn't have any more to drink (again as planned). He poured her a drink anyways, a shot of whiskey, and set it down in front of her. Rosso was the one who took it, slapping down a single bill as he downed the heavy drink. The Ghost Rider took the alcohol in the drink and burned it, feeling the need to burn something other than a soul tonight.

Edward tried numerous times, even taking the bill on himself. Little did he know it might be his last paycheck or bill. Eventually, he succeeded in getting Yang drunk (with the Rider simulating drunkenness via a spark of heat in Rosso's cheeks) and invited her over to his place. Of course, the Rider essentially took over at around this point and (through Rosso) asked for a ride to his own place. Edward agreed, possibly planning on killing the red-haired rascal before trying to rape and kill Yang as well, if not to use Rosso as a means to a dark end before killing the duo. That wouldn't work if things went according to plan tonight.

Things went out of hand rather suddenly when Edward drew a gun on them, mostly Rosso, and ordered them into his van. The two complied, and Edward followed suit and bound Rosso. The Rider noticed too late that the man was, indeed, possessed and knew about the fact that Rosso somehow wasn't drunk.

Krosso immediately started forcibly undressing Yang, accidentally touching her hair. That was the last straw for him, as she reflexively punched him with a flaming fist. Her Semblance ignited, burning away the alcohol in her system, and she went on the offensive as she knew exactly what she was doing now. Thankfully Rosso didn't see anything too graphic, as Krosso went for Yang's rather large bust first.

Loga, the demon inside of Krosso, awoke and allowed him to fight Yang back. She found it hard to fight the demonic duo until a crushing blow struck her in the temple, knocking her out temporarily. Unfortunately for the possessed man, Loga was also a target for the Rider.

" _I knew you'd be out here,_ " the Rider's voice resonated from Rosso's throat before Krosso could continue to finish what he'd started with Yang. " _Loga, one of the Devil's smartest in his army. First it's a heavy sinner to burn, and now it's one of my other targets with him. This day can't get any better._ "

"Excuse me," Krosso said confusedly, rather terrified at Rosso's new voice. "How in the Holy Hell can you even see her?"

The Ghost Rider fully took over, melting through the binds and burning the bandanna around his face as his skull showed and ignited viciously. The twin minigun gauntlets on his wrists ignited and began spinning rapidly before the Rider took aim and fired with Hellish bullets. The projectiles tore the demon out of Krosso's body before essentially shredding the hellion back to where it came from.

The burning skeleton in human clothes then got out of the vehicle and used his chain whips to drag Krosso over to him when he tried to run.

" _Your hands are stained with the blood of the innocent_ ," the Rider stated bluntly. " _Your soul is scarred from calling on Loga. Feel the Wrath of God. Feel the pain of the innocent. Burn in Hell where you belong._ "

The man's soul was immediately sent to Hell and burned as the Rider's Penance Stare took effect. Krosso's dead body fell to the ground as the Rider transitioned from Hell Rider to Angel Rider and knelt before Yang. The Rider state faded from Rosso and the Rider went on to other things while Rosso's soul took over from there.

"That must've been a hefty blow," Rosso commented. Yang woke up around that time before grabbing him by the collar and dragging him down to her level.

"I helped you with what you wanted," said she. "Now tell me what I want to know."

"Turns out, she's been spending most of her time outside the kingdoms killing Grimm," Rosso stated bluntly. "She's been elusive, almost so much that even the Rider can't keep her pinpointed all the time. She's currently on her way to Vale for some reason, probably to check up on you and her brother from a distance or something like that. Now can you let go of my jacket, this thing is a hundred dollar jacket that I got from the bike dealership and a very rare Vespucci collector's item."

She did the unexpected and drew him in for a quick kiss smack on the lips before pushing him off. He rose as quickly as she did, just in time to catch her driving off on her own bike. Rosso shook his head in total confusion as to what just happened only to hear the Rider laughing.

'And what's so funny this time,' Rosso demanded. The Rider kept laughing as he explained.

' _Seems to me like she wants something a tad unique from you_ ,' Rider laughed. ' _Maybe she even wants to keep you in_ her _bed, if you know what I mean_.'

'Oh, can it,' Rosso griped at his celestial counterpart. Unlike previous Ghost Riders, Rosso not only signed his contract for Justice and Love, but he felt a deep connection with the Spirit of Vengeance. In fact, that was the whole reason why he had the Rider's power as his Semblance to begin with. Even so, the two still treated each other as brothers and not as host and celestial body, and that meant arguing, bickering, joking, teasing, and sometimes fighting.

The duo hopped on Rosso's Vespucci Leonessa T2M, a powerful motorcycle with twin engines connected to a single transmission, extra armor around the tires and sides for added crash protection, and coated in a thin layer of glossed birch wood burned in specific places to give it an extra 'lioness flare' as the dealer called it. True to its name, it did look like the queen of the pride with a saddle on her back and two wheels instead of four legs. The money used to purchase the powerful bike was supposed to be used to enter some sort of military academy outside of Atlas, but Rosso decided against joining the draft for good reason: his brother had entered once and came out with PTSD, MPD, and a nasty addiction to cigarettes and alcohol. Rosso eventually named the beautiful motorcycle 'Adelaide' after one of the Italian queens before his tiny home village was absorbed by Vale.

'Time to head off again,' Rosso thought to himself as he started Adelaide and revved her motors. He gunned the accelerator and shot off at an impressive speed.

* * *

 _Undisclosed facility, Atlas_

"Tell me he is finished," General Ironwood prayed to one of his head scientists. The men were working on two projects, one to contain the power of the four Maidens and one to control the might of the White-Eyed Guardians, men who were foretold would emerge when the power of the Maidens they protected fell into corrupt hands. More accurately, they were trying to contain the power of all four of the White-Eyed ones, the legend of the Pure One.

"Unfortunately sir, this one cannot hold an Aura," the scientist reported. Ironwood sighed with discontent. Of course this would happen.

"Can you create an artificial intelligence strong enough to emulate his power," Ironwood again asked. The scientist hesitated before answering again.

"We can't," the scientist said solemnly. "That sort of intelligence takes decades of work, and we don't have that sort of time for what you're asking. Fortunately, we can emulate a learning intelligence free of the CCT information networks while keeping it tied to a host body."

"Free of emotion?" The scientist nodded slowly, then rolling his eyes up to rethink his response.

"Well, it will eventually learn a capacity for emotion, but it will still have a sense of duty to the people of Remnant."

"Good. How soon will they be ready?"

"The two of them, or the body and AI?"

"All of it. How soon will they be ready?"

"With the rate of progress so far, it's safe to assume that we have about two months before the AI and AA are ready." AI, of course, stood for Artificial Intelligence; AA was a tad more complicated, as it stood for Artificial Aura. Both of the new projects required these things, but the learning AI's were easily constructed. The mechanical Maiden would require a much larger Aura than the new Pure One, but the Pure One also required a great deal of cunning and intelligence more than the Maiden. Regardless, both needed to learn how to be more social in due time. Time which the General was afraid they didn't have enough of.

"Speed up the Aura generation, and we'll go from there. Dominantly, we need his AI ready sooner than hers."

Ironwood's Scroll rang, surprising him. It was midnight, and the number was a civilian frequency. He excused himself and answered professionally.

"This is General Ironwood," he began, hoping to hang up soon. "You've reached my personal Scroll. I'm probably busy now—."

"I know it's you, General," a familiar voice answered. "I also know what you're working on. Don't act coy, I can see them from here."

"Why did you call me, Gigatron," the General demanded. The manmade revival of Megatron chuckled darkly, sounding like a motorcycle engine revving through the Scrolls.

"I'm not going to stop you or anything," Gigatron answered. "Nor will I stop you from recreating my kind. However, an ally of mine will not be pleased to hear about your silly projects. I suggest you stop before she notices. Otherwise, things might get a bit hectic for your precious creations. Oh, and a piece of advice: an artificial soul will not fully substitute or emulate a real one. Those precious Maidens of yours, the White Eyes, won't come willingly into your devices; they're just too… perfect for them. It takes a virgin with a pure heart for the Maidens, and a good-hearted hero for the Pure One. Besides, the Pure One won't come out unless the Maidens truly are in danger, so simulating that won't really do you any good."

"I'll keep that in mind," the General said spitefully. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some work to do."

"I'm sure you do," Gigatron growled. "As I'm sure you did when you revived my father."

"Goodbye, Giga," James said before hanging up. He ignored the reborn machine's words and continued working on his twin projects.

 **End**

* * *

 **A/N: In terms of the 'Pure One', he's basically Herobrine with a respect and care for humanity. Of course, his homeworld is Hell/the Nether/Tartarus, but he stays there with the darkness after the power of the Maidens and Salem's resurrection into an immortal mortal body (I see her as more of an entity of darkness, like Entity 303 compared to the common misconceptions about Herobrine). I damn near confused myself right there.**

 **And for the near-rape scene in this, I might have to change the rating to M, so beware that. I may also have to change the rating on 'Avalon Reborn' because of intense violence and future… things. Let's keep it at that. SO leave a review if you want to, whether you're a fellow author or just a guest it doesn't matter to me. AND I'll see you all in the next chapter. General Texas, out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Key notice: I decided to update the third chapter (although it is technically the second). Now this story doesn't contain the ACU—instead, it contains a very clear reference to Godzilla (and a bit of Naruto, no thanks to Gojira being contained in a boy).**

 **Disclaimer: the author in no part claims that this is canon in any fictional universe (even his own, really). Outside of being a fanfiction, this story does not exist. The author does not intend to violate any copyright laws, rules, or regulations.**

* * *

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/Transformers crossover

Chapter 3: Maximus at Beacon

* * *

Everyone had their secrets, no one was exempt from that law. But if he did have any secrets, Jaune Arc had no idea about them. As he told everyone, he was raised by the Arc family to be an Arc Knight.

The Arc family was famous for the Arc Knaves, Knights, and Lords they pumped out every so often. Not all members of the family were tied by blood, such as Jaune's brother-in-arms Solomon, but they were all tied by their desire for justice, honor, and might. That is, everyone except for two people: Jaune and Solomon. Solomon himself left the Arc line when Jaune was in his early teens, supposedly chosen to become the new Lord of Faith among the Knights of Virtue; since Solomon was blind at birth and had no desire for honor or might, he was able to leave and no one argued with him. Jaune, on the other hand, had no skill with the sword/shield combination, a locked Aura, no Semblance to speak of, and no idea what he wanted out of life despite his training.

Some time around when he would've graduated from a combat school, Jaune was given a hefty sentence by the Pater Magnus, head of the Arc family: due to his weakness, and the Arc way of life 'weed out the weak', Jaune was on his way to either exile or extermination; if he was up to the task, however, he could take on a murderous Directive and become an Arc Knave. To buy himself time, he took the latter and was forcibly enrolled in Beacon Academy.

In the Arc family, Orders, Missions, and Directives were completely different. With Orders, whomever received it could not decline it, but no one else could take it. A Mission was declinable, but was only available to one person at a time. Directives were available to all active members of the Arc house, from Prospects all the way up to Lords; while not declinable, no one absolutely had to participate per se. With Jaune's Directive, it was more specialized to those young enough to be First-Year students at Beacon.

The young man sighed as he rode in the back seat of his family car. A pair of auburn eyes looked in the rear-view mirror as the blond began messing with his short wartail. Pyropus Arc tipped his bronze-colored hat forward as he drove the Prospect to the airship dock in Vale.

"I don't know what's going on in your head, but I'm guessing you're having second thoughts about this," Pyropus thought aloud. "Maybe you should just relax, cool your head off a little, think about cute girls or something like that."

Jaune said nothing, starting to twiddle his thumbs in his lap. Pyropus's forehead wrinkled in frustration.

"Look kid, I know you don't like this. I hate it just as much as you do, believe me. But we all know that this celeb, this girl, she and her family won't agree with ours in any way possible. Think about this: you'll have a chance to better yourself, prove your worth, _and_ you'll have a shot at another less-violent Directive."

"Just so you're aware," Jaune finally spoke. "I'm not going to do it right away. I've got some other things to sort out first."

"And that's fine, Brother," the Bronze Paladin consoled his brother-in-arms. "If you can't bring yourself to kill the Invincible Girl, that's fine. In a few short weeks, you'll be in the position to invite the most important family in Atlas to… join our cause, so to speak. That'll bring you up from Prospect to Lord in no time."

"I never said I wouldn't," Jaune argued. "But I don't think I should－or could, for that matter－right away. I just… I need to look at things from another angle first." Both Arcs were silent for a few moments.

"You know," Pyropus piped up. "You could always simply kill her in her sleep."

"What did I just say," Jaune grumbled, starting to get angry. Pyropus focused on the road ahead of them, only turning back to apologize before returning his focus to the road.

* * *

Maximus yawned as he drank one more mug of coffee. While he hated the stuff, he wasn't one for declining a way to wake up in the mornings. The Prime lost count of how many mugs he'd had when he reached the eighth cup. By all standards he should've been getting a caffeine high at this point: fortunately for him, his hereditary traits as a Prime allowed him to bypass any highs induced by weak drugs or average doses of strong substances.

While he should've gotten on the airship by now, the ship itself was running late. Besides, he had one more prospect student yet to arrive: the curious Jaune Arc. The two had never met in person, but Jaune's brother had a run in with Maximus a couple of years ago.

" _When you meet my brother_ ," Solomon Arc had said to the Prime, " _tell him to find a man called 'Xander Willson' once he unlocks his Aura_."

Max didn't trust Xander judging by his name, but he trusted the Matrix of Faith's holder. Maybe this Jaune character would prove an asset in any upcoming battles.

' _Do not presume anything_ ,' Optimus warned Max through the Matrix in his chest. ' _The Arc family is notorious for criminal activities just as it is famous for its noble warriors. Be on guard at all times._ '

Max took this advice to heart as an Arc family car rolled up near the Airship Dock. Out stepped some scrappy tall kid with a blond wartail, white armor over a navy hoodie and blue jeans, a fair complexion, and a pair of blue eyes. Detecting no hostile intentions and a powerful Aura Seal contained within his frail body, Max let up slightly.

The boy noticed him and came up to the Prime, perhaps to strike up a conversation.

"Can I have some of that," the stranger asked, taking Max aback. Strange conversation starter, check.

"Erm, of course," Max obliged and gave the boy his coffee. "Mind if I know your name?"

"Jaune Arc," the boy responded after draining the coffee mug in seconds. "And you're Maximus Prime, right?"

Maximus took an immediate liking to Jaune, acknowledging his observational prowess and… wait, _Jaune Arc_?

"I never thought you'd be so skinny," Max spat out before he could stop himself, immediately regretting it.

"And I didn't expect you to be drinking coffee this late in the morning," Jaune stated bluntly. "I also thought you'd react pretty bad when you heard my last name."

"So you know about the crimes of your family?"

"More or less. And you know about Solomon, right? My brother-in-arms, the Archus man?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Max became slightly more serious as he noted Jaune's bored tone. "He asked me to refer you to a 'Xander Willson' guy. Once your Aura's been unlocked, that is. Speaking of Aura, why's there a Seal on yours?"

"They didn't want to risk anything and put one on me," Jaune admitted. His gaze became slightly more downcast. "They also put that on anyone they don't trust, so I guess they don't quite trust me just yet. At least, that's my theory on it."

"And are you after their approval," Max asked. Jaune sighed and shook his head.

"I'm not sure about them yet. I get the feeling they're holding something back from me."

Maximus was silent for a moment as he internally debated with the other deceased Primes what to tell the kid.

'I have to know how much he knows,' Maximus stated. 'He might already know the truth.'

'He mightn't know it _is_ the truth yet,' Solus Prime argued. 'It is best that he learn the truth in his own time.'

'And he may never know the truth,' Micronus Prime fired back. 'Someone has to tell him or he'll just be their pawn.'

'We don't know how many lies these blasted maniacs have put in his head,' Megatronus Prime added. 'If we put ourselves as a trusted source, we can tell him everything.'

'Are you sure we should've added him among our ranks,' Micronus complained.

'I'm surprised you survived without getting crushed,' Megatronus/the Fallen shot.

'WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN,' the smallest Prime demanded.

'It means close your pipes,' Sentinel snapped. 'We have further business to tend to.'

'Why don't we take care of the matter ourselves,' Quintesson Prime motioned. 'He knows about the criminal side of House Arc. If we can get him to inform the local police about them, the vigilantes will be no more.'

'And risk losing him to a prison,' Alpha Trion declined. 'I don't think so. The boy is too important for that. Losing a candidate Prime is out of the question.'

'And if we simply tell him his destiny outright, we might scare him off,' Solus argued. 'We have to think rationally about this.'

'SHUT YOUR PIPES,' Maximus shouted. The Hall of Primes went silent. 'Thus far we have three motions: to risk his well being and betray his family to the police; to allow him to find the truth for himself; and to outright tell him everything and risk our credibility. I put forth a new motion: we show him the way to the truth. This way we will keep our credibility, his well being, and his candidacy as a Prime intact.'

'If there are no other motions, let's put it to a vote,' Optimus spoke. 'All in favor of referring him to the police, say aye.' Only Quintesson said aye.

'All in favor of leaving him to his own resources, say aye,' Optimus continued. Solus and Sentinel agreed to this.

'All in favor of telling him the whole truth, say aye,' the third vote was cast. Micronus's vote was barely heard over Alpha Trion's grumbling about the futility of a vote.

'And all in favor of leading him in the right direction, say aye,' Maximus finalized. Including Optimus, Megatronus, and Maximus, the remaining nine Primes voted in favor of this motion.

'It is official,' Prima announced. 'We lead him to the one who knows the truth, and ensure the safety of our candidate. Should he ever deny everything and remain with House Arc, he will decline his candidacy of Primeship. If there is nothing else to discuss, we shall adjourn.'

Maximus snapped back to reality as Jaune stood, leaning on his given sword and shield point-down on the ground. The teen sighed as he put more and more weight on the flimsy materials. Almost instantly, Maximus saw that the two weapons could be one if put together in the right way.

"Do you want a tip for that," Maximus asked as he came up to the blond. Jaune turned to see Max, and simply nodded, handing the weapons over.

Without a moment's hesitation, Maximus began fiddling with the hilt of the weapon pair, sending Jaune into a small panic. Finally, Maximus hit the right thing on the hilt, which turned the small longsword into a long, winged broadsword. Jaune relaxed into a seemingly hypnotic state as Maximus handed the blade back to him.

"The button's on the bottom left of the hilt just next to the grip," Max stated. "Sorry if it's useless for you."

Jaune brought the blade up to eye-level and twirled it in the air. All of a sudden there was a link between sword and swordsman, albeit a weak one.

"Actually, I love it… now how do I turn it back," he asked. The human Prime laughed.

"The same way you would do what I did, the button on the hilt." The Arc Prospect pressed said button, then found yet another on the other side of the hilt. Pressing that, his sword turned into a crossbow without string or bolt.

"I guess it's better if someone has an Aura to go with," Jaune commented glumly, transforming his weapon back to its original form. He brightened up slightly. "Maybe I should fix that sometime."

Max was almost immediately downcast.

"Yeah, about that… I have no idea how to break that Aura Seal. I barely know how it works, much less how it was created."

"That's okay though, someone's bound to know. It could be simple, after all."

Maximus was surprised at this. Despite everything Jaune was going through, he still had hope for the future. Perhaps the Primes weren't wrong in setting his candidacy.

"Have you ever… been forced to do something you didn't want to do," Jaune asked. Max nodded. "And… did you ever do it?"

"What're you getting at," Max wondered aloud. Jaune took a deep breath and let it go.

"Well, if I don't do something that… my family wants me to, then they'll do it anyways and kill me," Jaune explained. "But, I'm not that sure I want to do it." Max sighed and rested a hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"Do what _you_ want to do, what _you_ think is right. Justice is a skewed thing this day and age: it's all about 'eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth' and all that. If you think that's what you have to do, then do it. That's how I became a Prime: I did what I thought was right, and it turned out to be what the other Primes wanted.

"So, what is this 'thing' that your parents want you to do－."

"They're not my parents," Jaune snapped, taking Max off-guard. "Look, I never knew my real parents, but they took me in and made me do the initial trials. I don't know how I even survived, but that's when my Aura was sealed. And now, they want me to kill some celebrity or something because they don't like her. But I… I just can't; something in me doesn't even sit well with the Pater Magnus. I-in fact, I feel like I have to constantly watch my back around them. *sigh* I don't know what to do."

"Like I said, do what you feel is right. I'm not stopping you, but I am warning you Jaune: no matter the action you take, there will always be consequences and repercussions. Take one route, your family will be proud of you but you'll be a criminal; likewise, take the other path and you'll be a hero, at the cost of those who once loved you turning against you." Jaune's expression darkened violently, and some of the seal's symbols began to shine white through his jacket arms.

' _They never loved me_ ,' a deeper voice whispered through the seal, ' _not even once._ ' The seal faded as Jaune's face changed back to the naive, happy one Max was starting to enjoy.

 _KAPPA, Omikron, Rho, unknown (Xi, maybe Chi), Iota, blank, THETA, Epsilon, Tau, Zeta, Upsilon_ , Maximus recalled from the symbols. Thus far, it could be _Korchi Thetzu_ , possibly an ancient Greek energy bind seal used commonly on monsters, or it could be _Kourcxei Theazzuu_ , which was an Anxient curse barring a person's soul to the Astral Plane. That was the words on Jaune's right arm; his left was in Latin reading 'Daemones Porta', essentially letting daemons into his body through this scription. This being a multi-lingual curse/seal, it was almost infinitely obvious that whoever created this at least knew what he was doing and could do it well. How Jaune wasn't absolutely insane yet was beyond the Prime, but he knew this: Jaune's soul was strong enough to push against the seal, even if only a little.

"Ooh, look at that," Jaune almost squealed, unbothered by the surprised looks he was getting. "That's our airship… right?"

Max looked over to the inbound airship, then at his wrist. A watch appeared on his wrist as discreetly as possible, showing that the ship was almost twenty minutes late.

"Blast," Max let slip accidentally. Jaune chuckled, probably sighing internally.

* * *

"So how's Chunky doing now," Yang Xiao Long asked Jaune as he helped Max off the ship. The Prime wasn't used to flight outside of using his own body, so he was nauseous about three minutes into the trip. Jaune, on the other hand, was somehow perfectly stable.

"Please refrain from calling me 'Chunky'," Max complained. "My name is Maximus Prime. I just happen to be a bit airsick."

"Keep telling yourself that, Chunky," Yang chuckled. Max began visibly fuming at this.

It was about then that Ruby noticed a shadowy figure dressed in white, hiding in the shadow of the tree he was leaning on.

"It's about time you guys got here," the figure stated flatly. Ruby noticed his stride, throat, and voice, and immediately knew who it was. She felt goosebumps forming on her body as he came over to the group. "You're beyond a half-hour later than scheduled. Of course, the airship _was_ a bit slow, I'll give you that; however, that doesn't explain everything."

"The ship itself was late," Max stated. "Twenty minutes late, to be more accurate."

"And why was it late, pray tell," the young man demanded. Ruby was starting to get flustered, even if slightly: no one had ever seen the White Reaper without his trenchcoat, and here he was in only his armored vest, a white t-shirt, and his leg armor. He didn't even have a mask, revealing his identity to be that of her rival: Evan di Angelo.

"Okay buddy, what's your problem," Yang returned, cocking her gauntlets and aiming her left at him. Evan gripped the rifle at the small of his back.

"I _was_ worried for your sister, but now my biggest problem involves you and the open ends of your weapons pointed at my collarbones." Yang's glare only intensified, and her fist was clenching the trigger.

"Yang, wait," Ruby almost cried, surprising the small group. "That's the White Reaper. You know, the guy I like so much. That guy? Yeah, that's him right there." Unless her peripherals were playing tricks on her, he was starting to sweat a little. Yang lowered her defenses a little.

"You're kidding me," Yang stated, giving him a crazy look. "I thought he looked more like your rival. Eh, I guess they're brothers or something." Yang gave a final glare before walking off with some stranger Ruby could've sworn she'd seen before.

"Nice save," Evan sighed after Yang was out of hearing range. "Erm, you didn't mean any of that, did you? I mean, you don't seriously believe that _I'm_ the White Reaper… right?"

"Well, you're wearing his vest," Ruby admitted, blushing immediately after. "Not that I would know what that looks like. But for all I know, you could just be a wannabe. I've seen what his Mark is supposed to be, and I highly doubt you have it."

"Whew, erm… good to know, I think," Evan stammered. "Just… when you find him, tell me who he really is, alright. I'm a huge fan of his."

"I guess I could… but only because I am too. We're still rivals," she almost shouted, covering her mouth shortly after and looking wildly for her sister.

The two were silent for a few moments. Jaune and Max left silently in this time.

"Well, since I don't want to leave you alone, I'll walk with you to the Auditorium slash Amphitheatre," Evan informed her.

"Wha- I don't need anyone to _escort_ me," Ruby argued. "And I especially don't need it from the likes of _you_ , Rival."

"Who says I'm _escorting_ you," Evan demanded. "I never said anything about _escorting_ anyone; I just thought you'd rather have an argument with your rival on the way than be bored and never make any friends."

"Well, I don't need friends either: I drink milk."

"And I eat ribeye steaks. What's the difference?!"

"And _we_ can't be friends: we're _rivals_."

"My mother and father were rivals, and they eventually _became_ my mother and father. Your argument is invalid."

"I betcha they argued like nobody's business because they were rivals."

"Mom wanted to protect me from the Reapers, and Da- my father was about ready to mark me. That's the only reason he… I… I don't wanna talk about it."

Ruby had to stop herself from asking about it or arguing further.

Neither one of them knew about the Reaper Scout following them. The scout, upon seeing the Reaper Marks on their backs, hesitated before putting his scythe away. He discreetly left the courtyard and began his swift return to the Grim Reaper. His message was simple: the White Reaper had made his presence known, and was very close to the Silver-Eyed Reaper. Because of this information, the Scout was able to determine just who they would need to send out for the kill－since the White Reaper was Death-level, and the Silver-Eyed was rumored to be Lieutenant-level, it was all-too obvious that the Grim Reaper was the only one capable of killing the both of them.

* * *

"... Devin Mitchell, current Prospect, desired Lordship," said the Bronze Paladin to the Pater Magnus, reading from a list of Prospects. "Keegan Rhodes, current Prospect, desired Archknight. Eden Iro, cur-"

"This is a list of Prospects, no," the Pater asked rhetorically, visibly annoyed. "I thought I asked for you not to list their current _rank_ , but their _status_. Or did you forget when we reached Ryan Vincent?"

"My apologies, sir," the Arch-Paladin knelt before the most powerful man in the underworld. "Ryan Vincent, ready for promotion, desired Kingship. Devin Mitchell, minor injuries, desired Lordship. Keegan Rhodes, recovering from prosthetic implant, desired Archknight. Eden Iro, returning from the House Fenrir duel, desired Centurion. Ronald Wilhelm, entering Shade Academy, desired… Caeles Paladin."

"Such is acceptable," said the Pater. "After all, when I was Vilhelm Alexandre, all I ever desired was to be an Archknight despite being the heir. Ronald will remember his heritage eventually."

"Alright. And finally we have Jaune François, entering Beacon Academy, desired… it's blank. He didn't desire _anything_ , apparently."

"Alas, he must make a choice lest I make it for him."

"Look, he's pretty skinny, pretty weak. Let's just put him down as Lord Prospect and call it good. I mean, it's not like he'll ever be a Knight or anything crazy like that-"

"Hold," Vilhelm grimaced as an unknown force pressed against him. The mark used to seal Jaune began glowing and flickering. The glow stopped after only a few seconds, but Pyropus knew what it meant.

"Perhaps the Seal is simply weakening," the Arch-Paladin suggested. The Pater Magnus shook his head in both pain and denial.

"On the contrary, Pyropus. The Seal has never weakened once since I applied it. It is the Sealed which should have weakened, and yet he grows stronger. It seems that Joshua Archus is finally breaking free of the Demon Gate Seal."

"Sire, look on your other arm," Pyropus almost panicked. Sure enough, another Seal was beginning to break. Or rather, it already had. And of all the Seals to break, it was that for his own son: Stahl Arc, formerly known as Stahl Krieger. "Oh gods, Stahl."

"Is he not the Paladin Recruit, the Steel Paladin? Perhaps it was overwhelmed in the midst of combat training. And say it was－will Mr. Krieger begin to defy the Arc family, or should he remain loyal to his _Vater_?" The Paladin snapped a sharp salute.

"I, Pyropus Krieger Arc, Arch-Paladin, swear to thee that, should Stahl Krieger my son ever defy the great Pater Magnus, I will kill him personally, and without mercy or regret."

"Now, that's a little far for someone like yourself, isn't it? How about instead of outright _killing_ him, we simply threaten the destruction of everything he's ever loved. That would straighten him out nicely, agree me not?"

"Understood, sire."

* * *

 _It is up to you to take the first step_ , Headmaster Ozpin had said. Those words tumbled inside Jaune's head as he walked to the men's room to change. Normally, he would've been torn between the baby-blue onesie his 'mother' gave to him and his ordinary Prospect fatigues, but he was torn between worse at this point: his personal desires, Maximus Prime's suggestions, and the orders given to him by the Pater Magnus. He was lost and knew it well, and he didn't know where to start looking.

' _Try inside yourself_ ,' a voice came from inside himself, somewhere beyond the Seal. Jaune stopped what he was doing almost immediately; the world around him went on as if nothing was going on. Minutes passed while he was frozen where he was.

"Well, that was strange," Jaune said to himself as he continued what he was doing. It was silent for a few minutes while Jaune was in the shower before the voice returned, this time with a memory.

' _Take her away,' said the Pater Magnus as Jaune saw a young girl with dark hair being taken away by Arc Knights. It was a time when he was an infant, but before the Trials; he had no idea how he knew that, but he did. In the distance, he could hardly make out a burning house and three corpses: that of a middle aged man and woman, and a toddler he could only assume was a girl because of the dress. A young boy about 6 years of age had surrendered himself to the Arc Knights, and was being led away by said men._

Jaune gasped as he came back to reality. He felt an unusual sense of ease, and yet a dark sensation of realization: whoever he was, the Arc family had done their best to destroy that former identity.

' _I can't say much except for that, little brother_ ,' the voice of his brother-in-arms said as Jaune remembered their final walk in the courtyard. ' _However, I can tell you that we're closer than you think. When the day comes that you finally remember, just know that I love you. Not like the brother you never had, but_ as _the brother you always had_.'

"Hey, you alright," a student called from outside the shower stall. Jaune was gasping for breath as he began to understand his feelings towards the Arc family. "You sound like you're having a panic attack in there."

"I'm alright," Jaune responded, still breathing heavily. "I just had a flashback or something."

"Must've been a bad memory, 'cause you were screaming bloody murder in there," the student said. "I hear your name is Jaune Arc. Was it that 'Trials' thing I've heard so much about? Is that what you were remembering?"

"No," Jaune said as his breathing stabilized. "Actually, it was of before that. But thanks for your concern. Make sure to tell everyone who's concerned about me that I'm fine."

"Erm… alright then, I suppose. Just take care of yourself. Name's Rosso Caserta, by the way."

* * *

Jaune eventually made it out, dressed not in his onesie nor in his fatigues, but in an ordinary white t-shirt and a pair of blue shorts. He had Crocea Mors with him due to his name and rank, but he also mentioned the Directive to several students before settling down on the floor. No blankets beneath or over him, no pillow, just his sword/shield with him.

He'd never seen Pyrrha Nikos, but he knew that she was relatively famous. Knowing this, he assumed that she'd be wearing something flashy or at least fashionable to bed. The only person he saw wearing any semblance of this was Weiss Schnee. He _did_ , however, see a redhead with an oversized t-shirt and some breed of crown heading to bed on the ladies' side; while he'd never gotten a chance to formally meet her, he did find himself somewhat attracted to her. Regardless of who came in to kill who, he decided, he had to make a move then or he'd never get a second chance.

At about 22 minutes past midnight, Jaune had a dark feeling in his chest. This, coupled with a voice telling him to wake up, made him wake up in a cold sweat and reach for Crocea Mors.

This wasn't unbiased, as only a few moments later one of the glass windows broke when an Arc Knight jumped through from the balcony. The intruder landed right between two young ladies, somehow not disturbing them, and proceeded to start walking… straight towards the redhead with the crown.

Jaune reacted instinctively without a moment's hesitation. He lifted Crocea Mors and pressed a button on its hilt, transforming the weapon into a crossbow.

' _A wise choice, little brother_ ,' Solomon Arc/Archus's voice echoed as Jaune took aim. ' _A piece of advice: your Aura can fluctuate and break the Seal._ '

A titanic fluctuation of Aura burst from Jaune's chest, showing all the symbols of his Seal－ _Kurxia Thetzu_ , the Seal used to contain the Titans－and formed the bolt and string on his crossbow. The bolt began expanding and elongating rather quickly, drawing Aura from the new opening in the Kurxia Thetzu Seal, and finally reaching its maximum length in a matter of only a few seconds. His arms began glowing white as the Seal on his arms began chipping and cracking.

* * *

The Pater Magnus cried out in agony as a hole burned in his arm. The Titan Seal, as well as the Demon Gate Seal, began to crack as Jaune François's Aura began bursting out like water from a broken dam. While not totally broken, the Seals were draining him as they repaired themselves. Whatever was causing this opening, it had to stop. Vilhelm called on nearby Knights to respond to it, and only one was able to answer his call.

* * *

"I don't know what you're talking about," Donovan Pax responded to the Pater Magnus as he drew his sword. "However, I am nearby; once I'm finished with Miss Nikos, I'll check it out and repair the Seals if I can." With that, the Lightning Paladin cut his conversation. Unbeknownst to him, Jaune had already taken aim and had his finger near the trigger.

Pyrrha Nikos awoke with a start when she heard the blade leaving its sheath. She immediately looked over to the men's side and found Jaune Arc with a crossbow, aiming at or at least near her head with an Aura bolt. Her eyes widened with fear as his finger began to squeeze the trigger.

"Go ahead, Jaune François," Donovan insisted. "Take the shot and kill her."

Pyrrha laid down and curled up in the fetal position upon hearing Donovan speak, accepting her death at this point. Donovan's blade rose to deliver a killing stab... then Jaune stopped him with only two words.

"Eyes up," he shouted. Donovan looked at Jaune and was almost immediately hit by an Aura bolt－the exact same Aura bolt in Jaune's crossbow. The blast hit Donovan so hard that the legendary Magno Sigillo on his chest simply shattered. The Lightning Paladin stumbled back from the force of the bolt, but wasn't totally out of it. In fact, his Aura rose to protect him just as Pyrrha got the courage to look up with curiosity. The sight she saw was truly breathtaking:

* * *

Jaune rose, smoking white as the Aura string on his weapon dissipated into the air. The crossbow transformed back into the sword/shield combination, which Jaune set down almost immediately after the pieces finished moving around. Memories of Solomon rushed to him as he began to recall things before the Trials; time seemed to slow down around him while this was going on.

Before he was known as Solomon Arc, he was called 'Archus' for his last name. He was the one who introduced Jaune to Stahl Krieger, the wannabe Paladin. Soon after, he became the mythical Knight of Faith when his Archknight test came about. He was also the most like a true brother to Jaune, like the brother he never had. That was why, when Solomon left to join the other Knights, Jaune stayed up that entire night in tears, knowing he might never see his best friend again.

Jaune now realized that, on that final night, Jaune cried not because he lost a great ally, nor because a friend was leaving, but because his older and only brother was being forced to sever the strongest bond in history.

"So, that Archus boy really did get through to your head, didn't he," Donovan sneered. Jaune stood tall as the Seals began trying to repair themselves. "The brothers never really forgot each other even after the Brother's Bond was broken, eh."

"Give it up, you're surrounded," Jaune stated coolly, letting the Aura surround his hands.

"I've faced worse," the Paladin laughed. "Like a Knight of Faith."

"Didn't you hear me? I said give it up, that means get lost."

"And I said I faced a Knight of Faith. I meant, I defeated the last Faith Knight."

Jaune began to pale. The Seals on his arms sucked in his Aura as his emotions blocked his focus.

"Now you're hearing me," the intruder laughed. "You know what that means, right? Big Brother's dead, ain't he?"

Jaune's emotions cleared rather quickly, filling in confusion with a nearly infinite rage. His fists clenched, and the _Daemones Porta_ and _Kurxia Thetzu_ Seals simply shattered. The Grand Magno Sigillo shone brightly as Jaune's Aura flowed to his arms at impossible speeds. His hands straightened, and Aura formed around them and created a blade. He lunged, flying at his enemy faster than a jet, and swung his right arm. Donovan did the same, swinging his blade and meeting Jaune in the middle; the only problem was, his overconfidence almost cost him as he barely brought his shield up in time to block another swing.

Donovan hardly had time to bring up his blade before Jaune attacked at speeds rivaling his own. Pax was pushed back constantly, with no time to watch his step as the strikes kept coming. He was getting worn down rapidly from the unprecedented speeds.

'Speaking of Solomon Arc was a bad idea,' he realized, 'and I wasn't even the murderer.'

Jaune seemed to calm down slightly when the Paladin recalled this through the Fields of Hallowed Memories, the bond that allows those who passed the Trials to communicate without physically saying anything, but the Archus child still didn't let up one bit.

At some point, Donovan began to slip up. He lost his grip, and he fell prey to a devastating slice from a white Aura blade. He twisted around as he fell, only to be gently caught by a cute busty blonde… or rather, by her shotgun gauntlet-covered fist. The gauntlet fired, sending him flying back through the very opening he came in through.

* * *

"Show's over, folks," Jaune said as he returned to the men's side of the ballroom. "Go back to bed, get some rest. You're gonna need it tomorrow for Initiation."

Pyrrha Nikos could only look on in awe at Jaune and confusion at what just happened. An attempt on her life? At this time? Whose sick idea was this? And why did someone from the same family try to prevent it?

Rosso Caserta eyed Jaune with curiosity, especially looking for demons in case that power wasn't his own. Sure enough, no celestial bodies were involved－only Jaune, three celestial seals, and an equally powerful energy behind said seals. He realized that there was a power inside him that stimulated his Aura to a point of nearly bursting the seals on their own. But what in the world could cause such a phenomenon?

Yang looked on in envy of Jaune's immense Aura, but she envied his command and control moreso. She didn't know what those glowey symbol-thingies were, but she was sure it had something to do with his Aura. What's worse, she had a bad feeling that－were she to get them herself－her own power would be inhibited, possibly even her personality. Just who the heck was this guy?

Cardin Winchester glared at that weirdo, greedy intent in his eyes. This guy had the gall to keep an Arc Knight from teaching his greatest nemesis Pyrrha Nikos a lesson, and even beat him within an inch of his life. What's worse, he uses the Arc name like it's just a common house name. Who the Hell does he think he is?

Maximus Prime stared at this nearly almighty power still emanating from Jaune Arc. Calm and composed as he might appear, the Primes were gossiping about this sudden show of power like excited little girls when they see their favorite role model. Even the stoic Prima was finding it difficult to remain calm as the godly amount of Aura continued to either flow back into the Seals or flood into the room and enter other people or parts. Only Optimus and Maximus stood back and watched Jaune through Max's eyes. In the Hall of Primes, Jaune's brother Solomon Archus appeared in spirit to witness his younger brother return to his normal self.

' _Seems like we did good by him, didn't we_ ,' Solomon said proudly to the two Primes he stood next to. Optimus and Max nodded together as the small human hovered at head level with the Primes.

"You sound like a proud parent or something," Max mentioned in the Hall, remaining stoic in his physical body.

' _Well, his parent's couldn't exactly be there for him, so I had to be for them,_ ' Sol stated. ' _Even so, I wish I could've seen him with my own eyes and not someone else's._ '

"You couldn't have known you would be born blind," Optimus said to him. "None of us could have predicted it."

' _Don't mean it isn't painful_ ,' a tear rolled down his cheek.

 **End**

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for not uploading sooner. Microsoft Word decided to sh*t out on me, and I kind of had to revert to Google Docs. Not that this was much of a problem, but it _was_ pretty annoying. Ah well, couldn't change that by much.**

 **Anyways, I feel like I almost rushed that. Tell me in a review how it went (or say whatever you want, just don't flame me if you don't want to get scorched).**

 **Backstory on my naming of certain characters, Pyropus is Latin for bronze (or was it copper, I don't remember which I looked up). Xander Willson is actually named after Xander Cage 'cuz he's freaking badass. Stahl Krieger had troubles because, unbeknownst to me, steel and warrior in German can be combined into one word (and I didn't want that, so Google and I are having an ongoing fight over this). _Kurxia Thetzu_ is entirely fictional, only a random selection of Greek letters that sounded good together. If it actually means something that has nothing to do with seals, curses, etc. then don't flame me for it: in this universe, it is an Anxient Seal that was once used on the supermassive Titans (similar but not related to the Titans of Greek mythos). Daemones Porta means Demon Portal in Latin, and my brother will eventually be able to back me on this. Magno Sigillo means Great Seal in Latin, and Vilhelm is simply another way of writing Wilhelm.**

 **Good God, this is alot to explain. There's more that I want to do, but this is all the energy I have left right now (even though I'm uploading this in the afternoon). Gen. TX has to get off. Peace.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Glad I didn't finish and post this chapter right off the bat, or otherwise I would've missed a review to respond to:**

 **said: nice chapter dude, a really nice one and putting Jaune as one of the many Knights of the order as the Symbol of Faith, and finaly showing his true destiny he belongs to the righteous path of the Knights rather than those thievish dissapointing members of the family who think themselves as the mighty ones beware family of thieves cause the knight of Faith willl cleanse the darkness carved inside their hearts.**

 **and wow looks like Crocea Mors will never leave him being his main weapon, but its role always be the same being the symbol of faith**

 **My answer: Thanks… but I think you got something a bit wrong in that. See, Jaune's not exactly 'one of many', as we'll soon find out. Righteous, yes; true destiny, not exactly. While yes he can qualify to be a Knight of Faith like Solomon Archus, and Crocea Mors will be a symbol of faith, well… waitaminute, I'm not about to spoil the story. I'm** _ **really bad**_ **about that. And speaking of stories, ONWARD!**

 **Key note: Some parts of the story will stay the same (i.e. breakfast and the launch) for Jaune and the others, but I will try to go in-depth for Gekido, Rosso, Evan and Max. Thus being said, I'll skip over the pre-launch speech and just go on to landing and pairing up. GOOOOOOOOO…. Why're you still here? Read on.**

* * *

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/Transformers Crossover

Chapter 4: Breaking the Three Seals

* * *

Jaune awoke to a strange and powerful feeling in his chest. He looked at his ribcage and was surprised to see that the Magno Sigillo was cracking at the seams. On his arms, the _Daemones Porta_ seal was virtually untouched, whereas the _Kurxia Thetzu_ had become so cracked that pieces were chipping off as fast as new ones tried to replace them. It seemed that someone didn't want him to break the seals. At this rate, he may need some help in breaking them if he was ever to free himself.

In getting ready for Initiation, he dropped his ordinary armor and hoodie in favor of a simple navy t-shirt, an armored blue leather jacket with gold embroidery on the edges and lapel, and his usual pair of blue jeans. For his weapon, he kept the Arc Knight training weapon in its winged broadsword form on his hip for a quick upward sideswipe if he should ever need to. To ensure that no one saw the breaking seals on his arms, he covered his hands with a pair of thin white gloves. Since his hair was too long to see through it now, he went to the men's room and gave it a decent trimming so he could see.

"Ready for today, buddy," the young Evan di Angelo asked Jaune as he wrapped his hands. Jaune saw the assault rifle on the small of his back and immediately understood why.

"Don't go too far with it, or you-know-who'll come and raise you-know-what," Jaune responded as he clipped an inch off the last strand of hair.

"Touche," Evan returned. Jaune nodded and turned to face di Angelo as the boy washed his face and wet his wraps.

"Well, good luck," Jaune wished before heading out. He had a feeling that, once he unleashed the full power of his Aura, something huge would happen, good or not.

* * *

"You know," I said as I passed by Weiss and Pyrrha, "I think the best course of action today would be to take everything that comes your way and play with the hand you're dealt. That way, nothing could possibly stop you on your way through all this."

"And who're you to know what's best," Weiss demanded of me.

"Someone who's been through the worst," was my simple response. Weiss scoffed at me and turned to Pyrrha.

"Ignore him; he's not in our league."

"Perhaps not," Pyrrha admitted. "But again, it could be we who are not in his league. After all, he did save my life last night."

"*psh* You could've taken that guy easy, no question."

"Well, he did catch me off guard in my sleep, and that's not accounting for my lack of weapons."

"Hmm, he _did_ seem to know about his presence, as did a few others." Weiss turned to me. "How did you even know about that guy? I mean, he _is_ your brother and all, but how did you know?"

"Let's just say that I may or may not have learned about and agreed to something to save myself some time," I answered. "Although, I have a question for you two: do you know anything about the Arc family Seals?"

"Is this about those seals on your body," Weiss returned. I nodded. "Well, I know just about everything there is to them, and I'm telling you here and now: whoever made them had a massive Aura in mind, and even those seals aren't nearly enough to hold it in."

"Is there any way to break them safely?"

"Not exactly," was her answer. "While there is a way to weaken the seals, you can't break them through traditional means: as you showed us all last night, it takes quite a bit of Aura and force directly on the Seal to break one of them. And as for your Titan Seal, it looks about ready to break in and of itself.

"Wait, why am I telling you how to make and break them? Do you even know how they work in the first place?"

"Well, erm… not exactly," I admitted. "Why?" She muttered something about 'not as smart as he looks'.

"Listen here, weirdo," she insulted me. "The central Seal on your chest is the Magno Sigillo, which is supposed to block your Aura _and_ tamper with your personality to such a degree that you are under control of a certain individual; in your case, it's clear that whoever is doing this to you doesn't have total control over your personality, or otherwise you would be a mindless drone. The Titan seal on your arm is made to contain more Aura and inhibit a Celestial Semblance, which was clearly working at full capacity until last night. Finally, the Demon Gate Seal on your other arm is made specifically to allow your Aura to leak out of your body in an uncontrollable manner and let Grimm material in, whatever you may decide to label it as.

"Does any of this make sense to you?"

My mind was numb from hearing all of this. Not only did she know so much about it, not only was I overwhelmed with information, but the sheer fact that the Pater Magnus hated me to such a degree as to do this was overwhelming. On top of that, the piece of me that I always thought was missing was starting to tug on my very soul. I felt a bottled-up rage start to open up within me, and things started turning a hue of yellow, red or a blueish-white.

"Maybe I didn't explain well enough to you," Weiss interrupted my anger. "You may have enough Aura to break through all the seals if you wanted, but it's not wise to do so; as a matter of fact, I'd go as far as calling it suicide. When you break one Seal, it would drain a hefty chunk of your Aura. Permanently. Imagine what would happen to you if you broke all of them. Your very soul might shatter on you. The only reason you're still here is because the Seal source is giving their Aura to the Seals in your stead."

"Jaune," I heard Pyrrha say, and the odd vision impairment began to fade. "Do you see your left arm?"

I took a peek and was surprised at what I saw: the _Daemones Porta_ Seal was starting to crack. No wonder I was starting to feel weak.

"Regardless, I'm surprised at what level these Seals of yours are," Weiss admitted. "That Titan Seal was designed specifically for the most powerful Semblances, like my Glyphs. Combine that with the Hell-level Demon Gate Seal on your other arm making massive openings in your Aura flow, and the Magno Sigillo being made for gods, I'm surprised that you could release so much Aura last night. Perhaps your personal reserve has expanded over the time you've had those Seals."

"Well, that can't be surprising," I muttered as my strength returned full-power. "I've had all three since I can remember, maybe even before." I proceeded to leave, thinking things over.

* * *

*Time Skip*

Without showing much of his Cybertronian heritage, Max slammed into the earth at terminal velocity. As a being with a stronger-than-steel skeleton and body structure, he didn't need a landing strategy like Ozpin said he should have. Unfortunately for others like Jaune and Weiss, the same couldn't be said as their bones would crunch if their Aura didn't break the fall.

Max arose, cold steel eyes lighting up a vicious gold as the Primes entered his mind.

" _Heheheeeee,_ " Micronus Prime cackled, peeking through Max's previous thoughts. " _Oooh, I never thought a young-un like you could have a mind like yours._ "

" _You're far too easy to fluster_ ," the Fallen stated bluntly. Max almost raised an eyebrow at this. He turned to his sides to see that the Primes were out in holographic form, minus Optimus, Solus, and Amalgamous, as well as maybe a couple others.

"And why's that," Max stated out loud, no longer scared to physically argue.

" _Seems like you've been thinking of a young lass, eh,_ " Sentinel chuckled. " _Ah, young love_."

"Hey, thoughts _about_ don't count as thoughts _of_ , 'kay," Max blurted, blushing rather vibrantly. "Besides, I doubt you even know who you saw. For all you know, it could've been the old lady I saved from that stupid drunk driver the other day."

" _Well_ ," Alpha Trion said after a few moments of consideration. " _That probably makes the strangest thing I've heard another Prime say_."

"Eh, shaddap. It's quest time, Primes."

" _Nice rhyme_ ," one of the other Primes complemented before the holograms shut off.

* * *

Rosso must've activated his Semblance a split second before impact, because when he stood up he was in his Primary Rider state surrounded by burning dirt and Grimm skeletons. Thankfully his Semblance included his clothes in his 'body', else when he reverted back to his base form it would've been a rather embarrassing event for him.

 _Seems you don't want to be like Adam before Sin, hmm,_ the Ghost Rider chuckled, voice echoing through reality as it usually did.

"Well, in today's society, nudity isn't exactly appreciated," the host stated bluntly.

 _Yeah_ , the co-host mumbled. _Besides, daemonkin such as you are considered to be Faunus instead of Celestial Bodies or Grimm like you should be. After all, it's much creepier to see daemonkin bare than a normal Demon in his true form._

"Don't remind me," Rosso sighed. No matter what he did, he would always have the second rib cage around his torso, the rough skin beneath his jacket. That's what most Ghost Rider hosts had to go through, and that's what it meant to be a daemonkin. And since the Rider was basically tied to Caserta through his Semblance, there was no real way to reverse the effects.

 _Alright, I sense a pack around 300 yards, 15 degrees 3 minutes 88.07 seconds to the left_ , the Rider called out. _Be warned: the pack includes five Ursai, twenty Wolves, and a pair of Nevermores with nest. Although, I am certain to a degree that you will feel nothing but joy in this flurry._

With that, the Rider duo charged into the fray, not bothering to feel worried or unlucky, much less dust themselves off.

* * *

An Ursa Magnus waddled along, fat as it was after consuming trees and a pair of deer which dared cross its path… only to be completely crushed to oblivion by the sheer weight of a 20-foot, 30450-kg Gekido in his Gojira form, not to mention that the beast fell on the Grimm. A buck and doe backed up from the titan, only to turn around, kneel before the King of Monsters, and return to the woods most likely to reproduce.

" _And that is why_ I _am called the King of Monsters,"_ the Kaiju stated before returning to his human form. The Kaiju host then left to the forest like the deer.

* * *

Evan used his grenade launcher on White Reaper to kill a small Nevermore and slow his descent ever-so slightly. Despite his skill, he swore to himself he would hold back so that no one would be hurt due to his presence. Being the son of the Grimm Reaper and all meant that Markos di Angelo could sense his son's full potential being used anywhere, and due to this status he could tell there were other registered Reapers present; all he could really see was the Mark itself entailing their callname and their current Reaper Status, but not their Soulmate Status.

He could tell that Ruby Rose was a Reaper, as all Reapers had a Mark somewhere on their body. If he could see the region of the body closest to the Mark, the Angelic Reaper was positive he'd be embarrassed to have seen Ruby's, as hers was on the inside of her upper thigh underneath her stockings. Her callname was 'S Red Reaper', the 'S' standing for having Silver Eyes like Evan. What really worried di Angelo was her Reaper Status: Target/Hunt, flickering between the two when he was present. How could such a pretty young girl such as Ruby be targeted by the Reapers. As he did with all situations like this, he decided he would get closer and discover why she was on the Hunt List before making a decision to go for the kill or not.

'Let's see here,' Evan thought to himself, trying to hypothesize about why Ruby was being hunted. 'She looks too innocent to commit crimes, so Criminal Status is out. Her Scythe may have a built-in sniper rifle, but it can't be half as powerful as White Reaper, much less Markos' Death Scythe, so it can't be Power. And simply speaking with her yesterday tells me she _is_ far too innocent and good-natured to be Tainted like Markos. That leaves three options: Cursed, meaning Markos marked her for killing for any chosen reason; Bloodties, which would entail her mother or father having been Cursed, Criminal, Power, or Tainted; or Widow, which would bring us a bit closer depending on her story and dark memories to the surface if it is the case.'

In his motionless thoughtful state, Evan failed to realize he'd broken off a tree branch feet-first, kept on as it hit a downhill slope, and essentially dirt-surfed on a tree. He looked around, hoping no one noticed his epic yet awkward fail.

"Okay," he sighed, finding no one. "Time to find a partner. Hope it's Ruby."

* * *

FML. That was the first thing that came to mind as a familiar javelin caught my jacket by the collar, saving me from a rough landing. My inability to fly was a real inhibitor, one helluva curse for Initiation. No doubt my skin and bones could've handled an impact, although if it were a life-taker either the Seals or my Aura could've taken the hit, depending on what all was there to kill me.

It took a few moments, but someone came rustling through the bushes. I prayed it would be someone good－goddamnit, it's stuck-up- _not_ -princess Weiss Schnee. She finished hacking her way through the brambles and took one look up at me in a 'WTF' way.

"Hey, it's not like I'm aerodynamic, y'know," I grumbled, snapping her out of her trance. Despite making eye contact with me, she simply snapped a picture with her Scroll and walked off the way she came. She'd probably already found a partner, but it was still an unfair moment in my already crappy life.

Another moment or two passed before the owner of the javelin dropped by, a worried look etched on her face. Bright green eyes, shining brighter in the sunlight, followed the tree up to where I was and became brighter still… yet slightly more fearful, for some unknown reason to me.

"I see you had a nice flight," the red-haired Amazon smiled, resting a hand on her hip. I rolled my eyes at this comment before gripping her spear, ripping it out of the tree and my jacket, and landing in a crouch, rolling forward to slow my momentum.

"Like I told the last person who saw me like that, I'm not exactly aerodynamic." The spear transformed as I twirled it like a professional, being a gladius when I handed it back to Pyrrha Nikos. She giggled as she took her weapon back. Sparkling green eyes met my shining admiral blue eyes, and just like that I was partners with a celebrity. Not that it really mattered, as I'd already met her once before.

* * *

*Flashback*

While the Pater Magnus spoke with the Oracle and Spartan King of the Nikos family, Jaune François was walking in the Greek-styled courtyard when he noticed some boys bullying a young redhead girl with long hair and fearful green eyes. Jaune immediately took action, risking himself for the young girl's sake. Unfortunately for him, the way he fought wasn't strong enough to overwhelm the boys as he didn't want to hurt them too bad, and they were able to take him down and continue bullying the 12-year-old girl.

They took it too far when Jaune looked up to see them groping her, as her bust was small but present in her preteen body. Jaune started smoking white as he reached and broke through his maximum potential for the first time, stretching out the Three Seals with his insane new power, and stood up despite his already-healed injuries. The boys turned their attention to him, and one threw a single punch. Not only did it do nothing to affect Jaune, but the White Prospect returned fire with a backhand. This was no ordinary slap, as it sent the bully flying so fast that he smashed into a bench, then a pillar, and finally stopping at a tree, from the absolute power from one almighty strike. The other boys turned tail and ran, allowing Jaune and the girl to exchange names. That's all she gave him before she ran off to what Jaune presumed to be the living complex.

* * *

*End Flashback*

A burst of hellish fire to the Beowolf to his right caught Gekido off guard as he saw a young man… or rather, the walking, talking, _burning_ skeleton of a young man with human biker clothes, twin pistols, chains wrapped around his chest, and a shotgun on his back. How the f*cking f*ck this was possible, Gekido could only guess. Still, it wasn't half as crazy as being able to turn into a 36-story, 90-kiloton radioactive lightning-powered dinosaur capable of shooting nuclear devastation out of his trap like it was a laser.

"Howdy," said the skeletal figure as it literally punched an Ursa to Hell. To counter the strangeness, Gekido let himself grow to 10 feet and bit off the head of an Ursa, then fired it through a Beowolf Alpha.

" _Greetings_ ," Gojira thundered as it looked the flaming creature in the eye. The two came to a truce immediately and fought like hell, literally in one case.

* * *

A blast of wind nearly knocked Max off his feet as he gazed at the opposition: nearly a hundred Beowolves, five Alphas at the minimum in the massive pack. His Cybertronian heritage took over his eyesight and scanned for what it was, but he could still hardly keep up with the insane speeds of this new force killing Grimm quite literally like lightning.

Only when it stopped was Max able to determine the source of this power: a young boy, the same one leaning against the tree when the Prime first came to Beacon. Evan di Angelo was his name, if he wasn't mistaken. The young teen's gunmetal gray eyes stared right at Max's glowing yellow Cybertronian eyes, effectively making them partners.

* * *

"All I'm asking is for a little help," I explained to Pyrrha Nikos as we walked along. "All it'll take is someone or something to stimulate my Aura, and it can do the rest. I'm sure of it."

She seemed to ponder the stupidity that was my plan to reawaken my Aura and break the Three Seals: she sends her Aura around the Seals into my Aura, effectively revitalizing it and letting me break the Seals on my own.

"This plan of yours has far too many flaws," she stated bluntly, moving a branch out of her way. "However－."

"BLYA," I cursed in Russian as I was pummeled in the face by the very branch Pyrrha moved not a second before. She turned to find me lying and groaning on the ground, hand reaching up to wherever I was struck. The wound seemed to be bleeding, even if only a little.

"Perhaps it would be too dangerous not to do anything," she finished as she came over and helped me up. Concern was written all in her expression as she took a look at the minor injury. After only a few moments of scouring over the cut, she surprised me in saying this: "I'm trying now." I had no time before she placed her hand on my cheek and began glowing red. Her Aura had activated, and she began chanting something in Greek; it took everything I had not to blurt out 'that's all Greek to me'.

* * *

In a plane of existence between the Seals and the Astral Plane, I found myself staring at a dormant version of me, but I knew it would have been the rest of me had my soul not been fractured in the Sealing process. How in the world I knew that, I didn't know. Pyrrha was trying to wake the sleeping me from my slumber as I stood there motionless, staring at this new form and the realm I found myself in. I was on some planetoid with no atmosphere, but I also saw several large asteroids floating in the void.

' _So_ ,' a familiar voice called. ' _You're finally back, huh?_ '

All I wanted to know was where I was. The voice laughed.

' _You're on the inside, behind the Three Seals. I can't explain any better other than to say you were the only piece of us we could keep beyond the barrier without killing us. You were Hope, the weakest in an ordinary fight but an absolute beast fighting for others. Now that all the pieces are back together, all we need is to reunite and break out of this birdcage. And those meteors you see floating around? That's the Semblance we behind the barrier have worked on for over a decade now, our ticket outta here and the key to breaking the barrier. You ready to break free and keep what's-her-face from losing part of herself here?'_

I nodded. I also wanted to know the truth behind my life, but this whole situation seemed a bit rushed.

' _Yeah, well it's been 17 years since we've seen the outside world. Can you blame us for going a bit fast? Besides, you'll know everything when we're one again… in theory, that is._ '

Good to know. Time to break these stupid Seals.

My train of thought was interrupted when I heard a reptilian hiss speaking to Pyrrha's presence.

* * *

Using her Aura as a passage, Pyrrha was able to enter Jaune's inner mind/soul through the three Seals. Everything seemed hazy, but she was eventually able to see the form of a dormant young man. While she'd never seen him before, he most certainly seemed familiar to her. A powerful presence emanated from the surroundings, but even this power was dwarfed in comparison with the seemingly almighty presence at rest before her.

Despite her better judgement, she felt the urge to awaken the sleeping giant. Whoever this was, it was sleeping inside Jaune for a reason; waking it up could harm she and her new partner, but it could also do as Jaune said it would. Putting her faith in Jaune, she summoned all her courage and tried bringing the entity out of its rest.

" _You honestly think this child could be something more than he is now_ ," the Great Dragon Jormungand Ginnungagap hissed in her mind. The voice echoed in the real world just as much as it did in her head. " _Perhaps you want someone to free you of your fate?_ "

"I have accepted my fate by now," she replied. "I simply want to free a burdened soul."

" _Free a burdened soul, hmm? Or do you believe a weakling such as he will save you from my power?_ "

The entity she was trying to awaken was covered in dark tendrils in only a few seconds. Pyrrha didn't stop trying to awaken it.

" _You cannot escape fate. There is no fleeing the rise of Tartarus Rex, none escape the Heimdall eye of Jormungand Ginnungagap._ "

"Who says I'm hiding," a calming voice came from the being within the dark tendrils. "I've just been sleeping for a long time."

The darkness surrounding the being evaporated as a burning bright light emanated from the human form for only a split second.

* * *

" _The darkness awaits you, child_ ," the snake's voice hissed. I only felt confused.

"I'm sorry, do I know you," was what I said with the many variations of myself in this strange realm. The serpentine gurgled, giving off a sound that would've made even the most seasoned Huntsmen/Marines wet themselves; I remained unphased by the horrible attempt at scaring me.

" _It seems that the Arc clan never taught you of me. I am the Great Dragon Jormungand Ginnungagap, the purest form of living darkness, King of the Shadow World whose Queen is the Goddess of the Dark Arts Salem, and master of the Pure Grimm. It is of my blood that Grimm are born, my mind that darkness enters the minds of Man and Faunus, my power that has let you live so far. Do you know now who I am, or must I repeat the Prophecy to you?_ "

"From Virgins Royal," I recalled the prophecy of the Ginnungagap, "gathered before the Darkness, will open the Home of the Ginnungagap. From Virgins Royal, with the Essence of Jormungand, will be born King of Tartarus. From Virgins Royal shall Shadows draw to swallow the wholeness of the world."

" _Good, you were told of the inevitable_ ," Jormungand Ginnungagap rattled. He was cut off shortly after as more of my voices joined in.

"Nothing's set in stone," we responded, proceeding to call him a name that started with 'g'. I, personally, called him Gary, but I heard George, Greg, Guy, and even Giovanni.

" _Foolish_ _mortals,_ _believing_ _in_ _a_ _way_ _to_ _save_ _themselves_ ," Ginnungagap spat. " _I_ _tell_ _you_ _now,_ _mortal_ _child:_ _you_ _alone_ _cannot_ _defeat_ _me,_ _let_ _alone_ _eight_ _of_ _your_ _worthless_ _kindred._ " I smiled.

"Says the one always looking at the dark side of life," replied a new yet oddly familiar voice in a smart-ass tone. My senses suddenly began shifting to another perspective as hundreds of other thoughts flooded my mind. Not that I was overwhelmed or anything, but I started to feel whole for once in my life. The last thing I could see from the old perspective was the human figure sitting up and looking at me with my own cobalt eyes, smiling at me like a long lost friend.

*Permanent Change: Jaune Arc now J. Archus*

Pyrrha was blinded temporarily from the body shining, but when she could finally see again, the body had taken on the form of her partner. Thing was, the man was different: he no longer looked lost, tired, or removed from society; now he seemed vibrant, alive, and powerful. But most incredible of all, Jormungand had stopped taunting her entirely, as if the entity were afraid of Jaune now.

As if she had just been thrust out of Jaune's body, she snapped back to reality just as the Seals began to shatter one-by-one. The first to go was the already-broken Titan Seal, followed immediately by the Demon Gate. A flash of orange-yellow light erupted from Jaune as the final Seal was obliterated in under a second.

* * *

Of all the times to remember, now was apparently the time to recall an odd fact: something my brother Solomon called me in the weeks before his final adventure. 'Joshua Ulysses Eisenhower Archus', if I recalled right. An odd fact to remember at a time like this, and I had asked him if he'd gotten his tongue tied or if that was my new nickname. He had insisted that it was neither, which confused me back then. But now I understand why he called me that, why he let me see a photo of his previous family and pointed out a baby in the textured image. I found he was my real brother only yesterday, and he once stated his old surname was Archus. It makes perfect sense to me now.

"...are you alright," I heard a woman ask me in a worried tone. Reality came like a train to me. I noticed Pyrrha hovering over me cautiously like a drone, a worried look etched on her face.

"Well, let's just say I'm a new man now," I answered. "Thanks for the assist, Pyrrha."

She had every right to be surprised, as did I. My voice had become a touch less sharp and at least an octave deeper. To be honest, I sounded like the movie adaptation of Captain America. It was such a sudden change that I almost covered my mouth. I got over it quickly enough to hear Pyrrha clear her throat nervously.

"So… how do you feel now," she asked me. I shrugged.

"Weirded out by the voice change, but otherwise I just feel a bit sore here and there, I guess."

It took her a minute to say something else, but she eventually did.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, Jaune."

"Recent discovery, let me point out: Jaune François Arc was essentially just a codename. I'll go through my records later to verify, but if I'm not mistaken, my real name is Joshua Ulysses Eisenhower Archus."

"Regardless," she replied, "I'm glad that you're alright. Now I believe there is a relic we have to obtain."

With that, we both set off on a search for this 'relic' thing we had to get.

 **End**

* * *

 **A/N: That was actually difficult to write, all things considered. First off, I've been writing a new ebook/novel based on my observations of modern society and of the focus of the scientific community. I'm only on the 5th chapter so far, but it's hard to make progress when you're doing everything on your phone. In fact, I don't even have a computer that does writing, so posting this may be** _ **super**_ **delayed. I apologize in advance for any further delays.**

 **On the subject of future planning, I have a couple of questions that have nothing to do with this story but everything to do with a future fic: #1, what do you think makes a king great; #2, if Jaune were to make a different weapon than he had in the anime, which weapon class do you think would suit him best? Those questions are in relation to future stories whose plots depends entirely on viewer opinion, so tell me your answers in the comments.**

 **With all that out of the way, I need to get off and work on other things. Gen. Texas, out.**


	6. Chapter 6

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/ Transformers Crossover

Chapter 5: The Powers Celestial

* * *

Evan darted off at speeds close to the sound barrier for the sixth time this afternoon, with Maximus in the form of a massive white drone not far behind. The Prime had a hard time comprehending just how much energy this kid had. It hurt his brain/processors simply trying, much more running simulations on how fast he could kill Grimm. He was definitely taking a break after today.

"Hey, Prime guy," Evan shouted, slowing down rather quickly in front of Max. "Where are we going?"

"In a northerly direction," the Prime stated bluntly. "Why do you ask?"

"Because we're about to run into another pair. Some flaming demon guy and a Kaiju, by the looks of it."

"That can be counted as racist, you realize."

"Says the man who just _transformed_ into a man-sized drone running with the literal son of Death himself."

"Good point."

Out of nowhere, a massive dinosaur stepped into the clearing just ahead of them, which Evan somehow narrowly avoided and left Max screaming just before he rammed head-first into the side of the baby Kaiju. Both monster and machine fell to the ground from the impact.

"Feel better," asked the 20-foot beast. It was at that moment that Maximus Prime stopped asking questions and accepted everything as it was.

"Aside from the fact that a half-ton robot that's also a man just ran into a baby Kaiju that is probably Godzilla holding back and also a man," Max's processors fried as he transformed back into his human form, "I think everything's going down to the land of unicorns and rainbows. I mean, my partner thinks he's the son of Death, yours is a living demon, you're a Kaiju, I'm half super-advanced robot species, and as it is, my processors have officially shut down."

There was a moment of silence from all parties as Max proceeded to slowly lose his mind from all this new knowledge. Gekido set a small Godzilla hand on Max's metal shoulder.

"I feel the same way, as I'm sure do we all," the young Kaiju host stated calmly. "Now let's get some relics and get back. Maybe when we find out who our teams are, we can play a game of Cards Against Sanity (*Cards Against Humanity). A nice, friendly, nonviolent game of Cards Against Sanity."

"Tried to warn ya," Evan and Rosso commented simultaneously.

* * *

Joshua Ulysses Eisenhower Archus. What an interesting name, combining the names of three great historic generals, followed by the alleged surname of the daughter of perhaps the greatest king in all of Remnant. Joshua, leader of ancient Israel in the Almighty Three religions. Ulysses S. Grant, General of the Union during a civil war in one of the most prosperous nations to exist. Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the Allied Forces during one of the greatest pre-Grimm wars. Princess Daphne Archus, daughter of the great King Artorius Pendragon, leader of a legendary kingdom in a medieval pre-Grimm Remnant and owner of the most powerful of the legendary swords in all recorded and mythical history. Pyrrha was in awe by the name alone, and knew that Solomon Archus knew someone with that name, but Jaune having that name as his real alias? Didn't Joshua Archus go into exile or something?

" _Does it really matter his true name if he cannot change your fate,_ " Jormungand Ginnungagap hissed in her mind as the pair walked. " _Although, he is correct. His ancestor did, indeed, wield that blasted Saber. The bastard King obliterated my first dread blade, aided by that drunken mage Merlin._ "

"My sense of direction is telling me North is to the right," Joshua admitted, "but my sense of fate is telling me to go explore that cave over there."

"I have a bad feeling about this, Jaune… or do you prefer Joshua?" Pyrrha asked nervously. Sure, he was powerful, but things tended to go wrong when the two of them were together. It's been that way ever since he first visited as Jaune Arc. More accurately, ever since she first started falling head over heels for him.

"As do I, but I think I want to test my new power out. I've been subconsciously training with it all for most of my life, and to be honest I feel cooped up as it is. And for a final point on the unmade list, life is always more fun with some adventure, right? Off that tangent, call me what you like."

Pyrrha agreed slightly. On top of that, she felt comfortable fighting alongside him. His personality change certainly caught her off guard, but he was still the same man with the same morals. Many leagues above the men of the Arc family, many more than the men her father forced her to date; as a matter of fact, he was in an entirely different game than the Arc family, as well as her own father.

"Thinking about stuff," he asked her out of the blue. Joshua must've noticed her downcast expression. "Wanna talk about it?"

She responded with a single word: later. He nodded, perhaps understanding why. "Well, I've got to text someone, tell them I need my real identity stuff and the like. Let me shoot this message off, and then we'll go explore that possible mess waiting for us."

Pyrrha almost giggled like a schoolgirl. He was so funny at times.

A dark thought crossed her mind: they were partners now, and chances were that they'd be on the same team; what if he caught her naked and saw the Mark of the Virgin Royal? What would he think of her then?

He put his Scroll away after a minute, then drew his brother's sword in it's broadsword form. His Aura flared through the blade, adding a second edge to the incredible weapon. In his left/off hand he flared his Semblance, lighting a small orange flame around the rock in his palm.

"All done, let's go," was all Joshua said before entering the cave.

* * *

"Any ideas what these 'relic' things are supposed to be?" Gekido asked aloud to the small makeshift team. Maximus shrugged.

"Best not to ask at all, Hagane," said the Prime.

"I bet you all ten lien that it's some old bones that we have to piece together, with a boss fight at the end," Rosso suggested. Silence encompassed the group for a few moments.

"You play too many video games, Devil-Head," Maximus stated flatly.

"Maybe he's drunk, too," added Gekido.

"I bet twenty to Rosso that it's gonna be game pieces of some sort, and there are some powerful Grimm surrounding the temple in some way," Evan returned, intentionally jinxing fate. "I'm also willing to bet that you and Yang will team up to embarrass or confuse Ruby and I while we play Cards Against Sanity, proceed to do unsavory things together in a separate dorm room, and Jaune just solved his identity crisis. I'll pay fifty if I'm wrong on any part of that, a hundred if I'm totally wrong."

"Gojira is pretty certain that it's just a pile of radioactive rocks," Hagane said out of nowhere. "What about you, Prime?"

"I'm already with di Angelo here," said he as he showed them the text he got from Jaune. "Looks like my partner is a bit of a prophet of some kind."

Evan sighed and snapped his fingers, obviously trying to put down Rosso's pride. Succeeding marvelously, at that.

Suddenly, the group heard something no one else could: the cries of a certain heiress as she rode a Nevermore with her wily partner.

* * *

Joshua clung tightly to the Death Stalker's barbed tail, wide eyed with surprise. He honestly thought the barb was some breed of glowing rock. How foolishly wrong he was. And on top of that, his grip was slipping rapidly.

"I guess I'll see you on the other - " he tried to say, but was cut off at 'side' as the oversized scorpion flung him off it's tail. His whole body lit up in a harmless fire and shot off at twice the speed he was thrown at, all thanks to his Semblance having terrible timing.

The flight, fortunately, only lasted ten seconds before he hit something… or someone, in this case. A young Ruby Rose was falling from something, only to be saved by a missile in the form of Joshua Ulysses Eisenhower Archus. They landed painfully in a fir tree; though the young Archus was hardly affected by the impact, he was almost stabbed in the crotch by his brother's blade. Ruby, on the other hand, was seeing cartoonish Beowolves and stars; she shrieked upon hearing his new voice, but otherwise was okay.

* * *

Flying up as a rescue drone with a minigun attachment, Maximus managed to save Weiss Schnee thanklessly. The Prime landed softly before transforming into his human form easily.

"Why are you still holding me?" she demanded, to which he responded with setting her down gently and scanning for injuries. There were none aside from a scar across her left eye and a strange tattoo on the right side of her slender chest. He rose and began scanning the others for injuries. Evan had three small scars on his left side and a massive gash running from his right shoulder to just above his left hip, as well as an odd mark next to his Reaper Mark on his back. Jaune had plenty of scars all over, as well as the same mark as Evan had and an odd crown mark glowing blue enveloping his chest. Yang had the same mark as Weiss did, except just below her 'assets'. Ruby's Reaper Mark was on the inside of her upper left thigh, and had the same strange mark under a similarly-styled crown mark on her pale belly. Nora Valkyrie had the unusual mark on her neck, hardly hidden at all, as was that of Lie Ren. Gekido was fine and mark-less, although it was noted that Godzilla was relatively harder to scan. Pyrrha, when she arrived, was just fine, but she had a mark with a crown on her right… Max had to suppress a blush from the placement of that one. Rosso had a terrifying second rib cage around an unhealthy-looking body hiding a mark on his left pectoral muscle, but Max pushed aside the mutation as something to do with his Semblance and ties with the Ghost Rider. The odd mark was even on his own left arm. Problem was, the girls with the marks were virgins and that's about it; the guys, himself included, were just acquaintances, and hardly even that. Something was tying them together, he could feel it, but the question was 'what was it'.

Weiss cleared her throat to get his attention, and lucky she did. His cold, metal hand was resting on her slender, soft frame around the abdomen. Had his hand been only 14 centimeters higher, he'd have been groping her subconsciously. Maximus flipped out and stood up like a spring, never really being comfortable touching women his age around anywhere but the hands or in combat.

"My apologies, M'dame," he stammered, dusting himself off and looking around like a frightened kitten. "That was entirely my fault and - AAGH!" He tripped on his own two feet and fell with a massive thud.

"And I thought I was clumsy," Ruby mumbled awkwardly. Evan laughed and clasped her on the shoulder.

"Nah, awkwardness just happens to like you a lot," said the White Reaper. 'Kinda like I do,' he thought to himself.

"He's so gonna get slapped so hard across the face," Yang bet. Rosso chuckled, most likely thinking the same thing. Max tensed up just in case.

"I suppose not all Knights in Shining Armor can be perfect," Weiss admitted. "I'll let it slide since you apologized." Maximus let go of the air in his lungs, still decently nervous but feeling much better.

Rosso pulled Maximus aside.

"Dude, next time just give 'em a little squeeze, why don't ya," advised the perverted demon child. This earned him a massive backhand across the face.

"Rosso!" the man cried. "I'm not going to do that. What is _with_ you?"

"I guess I can see where you're coming from, cuz there ain't much there to begin with - ."

 _KABOOM._ Rosso was hammered in the face with a 500-pound fist flying at him, sending him soaring.

"If I end up on a team with you, I'll scream. And you'd better pray that I'm not your leader." With that, Maximus Prime marched over to the ruined temple structure, took a white bishop piece, and continued over to Jaune Arc.

"Get my text," Jaune asked as Max closed in. He nodded.

"They scanned it for their own databank, but fortunately they use the CCTS just like everyone else," Max made clear. "Cross-analyzing the data with your current identity makes things evident, so I included that in the copies I had prepared last night. Special permission, straight to Ozpin. Kept your copy with me, even. Bad idea, considering all the combat we've been through so far. Want it now or later?"

"Later. Don't lose it."

"Oh, I won't," Max grinned, patting his belly. All Joshua could visualize was the amusing image of Max trying to swallow a briefcase whole, screaming 'GET IN MY BELLY' over the duration. He found it hard to suppress the laughter.

* * *

A familiar screech reached my ears, and I moaned with malcontent. That stupid scorpion thing was back for round two. Didn't it already have a big enough piece of him?

Thinking on my feet, I ran to the abandoned temple, snagged a white rook, and ordered everyone to either grab a relic and roll out or just rush the pickup point. Ruby and Gekido bolted for the ruins immediately as everyone else made for the cliffs.

Sword in hand, I ushered them out of the clearing as quickly as possible until I was the last to go. Only problem was, I had a Death Stalker, a Nevermore, and a huge Ultimate Ursa tailing me as I bolted through the forest to the cliffs.

"INCOMING," I shrieked as I neared the broken structure literally bridging the gap between us and the cliffs. Pyrrha ordered Nora to lay suppressive fire on the bird while the others ran to or across the bridge. Maximus turned his arm into a plasma cannon and shot explosive blasts at the Ursa and arachnid, hoping to deter them. The Ursa fell back, shuffling as if it wanted a fight; I wasn't so lucky about the Stalker, which was starting to live up to its name by this point.

The twelve of us split up to fight these crazy things. I, in particular, was teamed up with Pyrrha, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren to beat back or kill the Death Stalker.

By that point, I was starting to get annoyed with the thing and decided to pull a Yang.

"I get it, stalking is in your name, but can you go and follow someone else for, I dunno, eternity?"

It hissed and tried to skewer me with its tail.

"Guess not," I grumbled just before the blasted bird ran into the bridge, separating partners on two ends of the battlefield with a gap. The thing was tough, but I was decently certain Pyrrha could handle her own.

What I had failed to remember was her first experience with Death Stalkers didn't turn out so well.

* * *

Pyrrha was doing so well against the thing. Jaune was almost shocked when she froze up, locked in its claws. It drew the young woman ever closer to its foaming maw.

"Nora, shoot the tail," I ordered, which she obeyed quite well. I held Crocea Mors in a charging stab position before flaring my Semblance. I lunged at an inhuman speed, further amplified by the Celestial-grade boost thanks to my Semblance. Now came the fun part.

* * *

Pyrrha was on the verge of screaming, crying out to anyone for help, but a blast of wind and a familiar sound stopped her. Her eyes were greeted with her salvation: Crocea Mors hilt-deep in the jaws of death, gouging out the throat of the Death Stalker. Jormungand Ginnungagap both sighed in relief and groaned as she was saved for his plans by the descendant of his mortal enemy. Joshua Archus/Pendragon pulled his blade from the mouth of the monster.

Another swipe of his blade, and the pressure on her waist released, and she dropped to the ground on her knees.

How could she have forgotten? How could she dare forget what her brother pulled on her? The mere idea that he would lead her to a Death Stalker nest and abandon her like he did. Then, after that, her own father took advantage of her fame in the most disgraceful way possible. And right after that, the Devourer claimed her as a Virgin Royal. All at the ripe age of 15. How could she possibly forget any of that?

Joshua picked up a rock twice the size of his fist and ignited his Semblance at full power. The rock turned into a dangerous piece of artillery, flames licking from crevices and onto his gloved hand.

"Remember what killed the dinosaurs?" Joshua asked coolly, but not coldly.

The Death Stalker hissed, swiping with its one good claw and missing.

"Exactly what I've got in store for you," he said, pure power radiating from his larynx. He rearranged his stance to that of a sports pitcher. "A one Terraton blast. Batter-up!"

Joshua threw the rock at what should've been a mere 101 mph fastball. Instead, it broke the sound barrier, the hard shell of the Death Stalker's chitin armor, its internal organs, and itself in less than a tenth of a second. She could hardly keep from flinching, but that sheer power was something she rarely got to see from him.

That didn't change how she felt. If she couldn't handle a simple Death Stalker, how could she take on something stronger?

A familiar face knelt before her, sword point down.

"You alright," Joshua asked her in a soft tone. His voice was starting to gargle, as if he had the cold or something. "Saw it all again, didn't you?"

She nodded, the memory still fresh on her mind. After all, it did happen only three years ago, and repeat every time she so much as saw a scorpion. She shuddered, not knowing that a tear was welling up in her eye.

"Figured as much." He pulled her into his broad chest, his strong heartbeat getting stronger as his skipped puberty began taking shape in only a few weeks if not days or hours at this rate. His voice was already much deeper, going from the soft-spoken high-pitched young man to a smooth baritone voice. "Let me know when you're feeling better."

* * *

With Maximus, his artillery fire didn't scare off either the Death Stalker or the Ursa Ultimate. In fact, the scorpion ignored him entirely while the bear, 20 feet at the shoulder when on all fours, roared angrily at some point.

Machine gun fire caught its attention next, hitting its paws as Evan darted and zipped around its massive feet and laying down cover fire for Gekido to transform. Rosso was already a flaming skeleton, and fired off several heavy-caliber explosive rounds from his hellish pistols into the beast's soft underbelly.

Gekido drove his katana into the ground and darted over to an open area away from the Ursa Ultimate and began gathering his radioactive energies.

Finally, the bear charged at Max just as Gekido transformed and fired. The Kaiju host missed entirely, almost hitting Ruby, who'd already scaled the cliff after decapitating the Nevermore. Ruby was absolutely terrified, but the White Reaper was already there and had moved her out of the way. His Uzi-blades combined and transformed into his massive two-bladed scythe, the White Reaper, and he bolted like - no, _as_ \- lightning down onto the Ursa's back blade-first.

"Rosso, now," Maximus ordered, and the Rider pressed a button on the side of one of his pistols. A line of claymores exploded into a hellish fire that should've knocked the Ursa back into the firing line. Instead, it just created a flaming, charging, pissed-off Ursa rushing the Prime. He was forced to dodge at the last moment, ending up between the titanic Grimm and the broken bridge leading to the cliffs. He took a look back and saw Weiss looking at Max with a hesitant expectation, as if she didn't want to take the thing on herself but felt she might have to. He turned back to face the Ursa, not even realizing that his eyes were glowing a bright golden.

The beast roared and charged again, but was stopped when a flash of white-hot Aura solidified into cold, living metal.

* * *

Weiss looked on, part terror and part awe flowing through her bloodstream as she beheld the sight before her. A flash of light enveloped Maximus Prime just before the Ursa trampled him, replaced almost immediately after by a massive metal man with a glowing blue core and blazing yellow glows everywhere else. It looked like it had a waving white coat made entirely of moving metal, with a golden chassis around the torso and shoulders, a gray pair of legs with what looked like massive rockets built into its legs. She assumed the darker gold parts around its face and head were supposed to resemble hair, so she assumed it had a light or scarred moustache and light goatee, a short mohawk leading to a spiked wartail, and short hair on the sides of its head. Just like Max looked as a human.

The machine grappled the Ursa and pushed it back with relative ease. Then it drew a massive golden sword attached to its back, and finally spoke with the most beautiful mechanical voice she'd ever heard, sounding a great deal like her favorite singer in a christian alternative band.

" _Need I remind you who I am_ ," the 48-foot tall mass of metal called to the Ursa. Or was it talking to her? " _Retreat while I'm giving you the chance, or else._ "

The Ursa Ultimate, of course, did nothing of the sort, and charged the machine. Maximus Prime swung his blade in an upward slice, cleaving the oversized bear in two with literally no effort at all.

" _You can't say I didn't warn you_ ," said the machine before parts began moving around and shrinking down, and in a single minute the leviathan of advanced engineering became Maximus Prime in his human form once more. That was beyond incredible.

* * *

"Before we continue with our next team," Ozpin interrupted the ceremony briefly. "I would like to clarify the identity of one of our students. Some of you may know him as Jaune Arc, but his real name, his true identity, has been hidden by the Arc family. Thanks to some handiwork by one of our own students, Maximus Prime, we have been able to determine that he was, indeed, orphaned and taken in by the Arc family. His original identity, as he himself has stated many-a time, is Joshua Ulysses Eisenhower Archus."

"Told you he would solve it," Evan turned his head to Rosso, who was now fuming.

"Now, let us continue," Ozpin declared. "Jau - erm, pardon me, _Joshua_ Archus."

Everyone laughed at the headmaster's blunder as Joshua climbed the stage.

"Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR, led by Jau - *clears throat* evidently that will take time to get used to. You will work together as Team JNPR led by Jau - oh, goodness. _Led by Mr. Archus_. I apologize in advance for all the butchering of your name on my part."

Joshua himself was dying of laughter, so bad that he began hacking up mucus, a trait caused by the rapid change in vocal octaves.

"I also wish good health for you, Mr. Arc. Oh, dear, that will be a continual problem, I'm afraid."

Again laughter filled the Auditorium/Arena, nonexclusive to Ms. Goodwitch.

"Before I get too out of touch, let us move on," Ozpin made the joke at his own expense. "Maximus Prime, Evan di Angelo, Gekido Hagane, Rosso Caserta. The four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team MACH, led by Maximus Prime. And Prime, please try _not_ to kill Rosso."

"Oh, I won't kill him," Max grinned devilishly, glaring at Rosso. "Not _too_ bad, at least."

Rosso whimpered a barely audible 'mommy' before scooting off-stage as quickly as tiny steps could take him. The entire student body erupted in laughter, starting with those nearest the stage.

"And _thankfully_ last, but certainly not least," Ozpin continued. "Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose. Now if the student body will excuse me, I have a tongue to unravel and much paperwork to complete."

 **End**

* * *

 **That, I'm telling you, took a while to write. I had much to do, little time and money, and now I have a computer to do it all. Things will be much swifter now that I've got things under a slight bit of control. And I have nothing else to say, so this is General Texas, signing out.**

 **Minecraft account name: GeneralTexas**

 **Waiting to create a until weekly uploads are possible.**


	7. Chapter 7

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/Transformers Crossover

Chapter 6:

"Next question, please," Gekido pleaded, starting to turn red in the face with suppressed laughter. The last question/answer combo in the current round of Cards Against Sanity was as follows: Maximus was the Card Tzar, and drew the phrase 'When you get down to it, *blank* is just *blank*'; Gekido played 'My first kill' and 'A bitch slap', earning him just that from the other three players; Ruby then laid down 'This groovy new thing called LSD' followed by 'Not contributing to society in any meaningful way; finally, Evan turned the phrase into 'When you get down to it, Sasquatch is just A fully dressed female videogame character'. Needless to say, the real choices landed between Ruby's blunt honesty and Evan's spontaneous hilarity. Evan was the next Card Tzar, and he drew a card after some rather amusing simulated angst. His eyes moved rapidly across the card a couple of times before setting it down on the table.

"'What's a girl's best friend'," Evan read aloud. Max laid down a card almost immediately:

"'Spectacular abs'," the smooth-voiced robo-man answered, only slightly joking with that one. Ruby followed.

"'An M-16 assault rifle'," Ruby laid down her card before crossing her arms and nodding like she'd just come up with the winning answer. Evan hummed in slight agreement and curiosity. "Never let you down." Gekido paused slightly before having to agree with her logic.

"I guess not," the Kaiju host admitted, interrupted by Ruby going on another weapon tirade.

"Although, maybe I'd probably merge it with something," the young girl admitted. "I dunno, maybe an axe… nice heavy-hitter."

"That costs money though," Gekido stopped her before she could go on and on for the next ten hours and played his next card. "'A man on the brink of orgasm'." Max stood up violently to this one and shouted 'REALLY?!'

Evan grunted, trying to decide between his choices, when Yang snuck up behind him.

"Oh hi Yang, what's up," Evan wore a nervous smile. The well-endowed young woman simply handed him a white card before walking off with Rosso. Well, that was interesting. Might as well read the card. "Oh, okay. 'Maximum insertion'." Gekido couldn't contain his laughter any longer and started chuckling. "Huh?"

"Insert where," Ruby asked innocently, and both Max and Gekido burst out laughing, sending bellows of amusement throughout the halls of nearly the entire school. Evan could only scratch his head in confusion. He had literally no idea what was going on. Joshua's head rounded the corner and peeped in with an eyebrow raised. The team leader sighed, shrugged, and walked off to his dorm in that order.

Things only got stranger through the night.

* * *

The next day, Joshua and Pyrrha both woke up late, Pyrrha due to staying up late and Joshua because of his delayed puberty finally kicking in.

"I hate this," Joshua squeaked in the shower. "I mean, I've already passed sounding like Simba, and now I'm gonna sound like Captain America? What's next, Sean Connery or Liam Neeson?"

Nora burst out laughing. Even Ren couldn't suppress a smile at Joshua's misfortune.

"For all we know," Ren said in a wiseass tone, "tomorrow you could end up sounding like Jar Jar Binks - ."

"Oh, HELL NO," Joshua shouted, poking his head out of the showers to reveal that his face now had stubble, most of which he was now shaving. His wet hair was parted to the sides in a vain attempt to get the 5-inch locks out of his face. His eyes had changed from a straight-up cobalt to more of a gunmetal blue with a few strokes of admiral mixed in. All of that was accented with red skin, likely due to showering in hot water, a blush, most of the day out in the sun yesterday, or a combination of the three. All in all, he was one handsome devil. "Not that puppet, not in a million years no. I'd rather talk like Yoda for the rest of forever, or sound like Liam or Sean by tomorrow, than live my life talking like that half-witted clutz trap."

Joshua shut the door to the showers so as to not get on anyone's bad side or rust any of the weapons, and turned back to the mirror to begin shaving. He had to ask for advice on shaving from Max last night due to him already growing a patch of stubble within only a couple of hours.

Following the advice given to him, he applied the shave gel to his face (after reading the instructions first, not wanting to make a total fool of himself), took a razor borrowed from Prime, and began shaving against the grain as was recommended. Somehow, Joshua (A/N: I'm having problems saying 'Joshua' and not 'Jaune', so bear with me if I screw up) was able to avoid cutting himself with the blade. Max had warned him about that little problem, and even informed him that most people cut themselves on their first few tries. Thinking nothing of it, Joshua washed off the remaining suds and wiped his face down. He heard something behind him and without hesitation turned to face whatever it was. His face turned red upon seeing the person who snuck up on him.

Joshua and Pyrrha both walked out of the bathroom after two minutes, both redder than beets. Pyrrha covered herself with a towel and was clutching near the top left front. Archus had combed his rapidly growing hair back, slicking it back in a rather handsome hairstyle. Nora immediately understood what had happened and turned red at the thought of it, most especially the thought of she and Ren repeating the incident. Lie, on the other hand, simply raised an eyebrow and asked what happened calmly.

"We don't talk about that," Joshua whimpered. "Alright, new team rule: one at a time in the showers unless you want a peek." Ren's face turned a slight rose color upon hearing that, seeming to finally understand what happened in the showers.

"Tell me you at least shaved," the normally stoic teen seemed embarrassed upon asking. No, he did not understand.

"I don't think you understand what happened," the leader responded, evidently flustered. "I had just finished shaving as soon as she came out. I heard her and turned around, and the rest I refuse to speak of. Happy?"

"No, I understood completely. You saw each other naked, I get that. I was just asking if you managed to shave first because you don't have any cuts on your face." He did get it. Thank the heavens.

"Oh," Joshua mumbled awkwardly. "Sorry, my bad."

Out of nowhere, rock music with a rather loud bass rocked the room quite literally and pun intended, knocking J. Archus off his balance slightly and scaring Pyrrha so bad she accidentally released her towel for a few seconds. Boy, that would've been embarrassing to say the least, especially when they saw a certain short-haired motorcycle driving teen staring through the window with one helluva creepy face plastered on his skull.

"Turn that down, hooligan," Weiss could be heard screaming from the dorm across the hallway. "I'm still waking up here."

"GEKIDO, TURN THAT DOWN," Maximus thundered. "YOU'LL SHATTER MY PHONICS."

"It's good for the soul, dude," Hagane returned to the both of them. "We all need a little Swedish rock in our lives. WOOP!"

"And there goes the neighborhood," Nora commented as she took a towel and entered the showers. Ren followed, evidently not caring whether he saw his partner naked or not.

"And there goes Lie's head," Pyrrha mumbled softly. "Best be getting ready for the day."

"Agreed," Joshua whispered, tired of all the cracks in his voice. The last surviving Archus turned his back to Pyrrha as he slipped his pants on. He had an undershirt, socks, pants, and had just started pulling on his white button-up when he made the mistake of turning. At least this time Pyrrha had on her undergarments and had just pulled up whatever they were that went on her legs. Leggings, he supposed.

He still turned around, red in the face, and began buttoning up his shirt. No good with bowties, he decided he'd go with a double windsor tie with golden clips loaned by his good friend Stahl Krieger. Speaking of whom, he wondered how his silver-haired friend was doing…

* * *

*Shade Academy, Vacuo*

"Remind me how I got stuck with you," Stahl sighed, slipping into his red shorts. Seriously, how did he get stuck with such a pest as Ronald Wilhelm?

"We were chosen to be partners by the Pater Magnus himself," Ron explained. "For a reason which I cannot yet explain, this was his will. Now please stop speaking and do what you must. As it is, the time is - ."

"Nine thirty, dude," Krieger complained. "I get it, you like being on time, all the time. It's the first night, first day of classes start in the morning. At the very least, you should relax your adamant schedule."

"Should I ever do so, my internal clock may get destroyed. Bear in mind that, of the two of us, I'm the one who trains more."

"Fucking bullshit, you ask me," Stahl huffed as he pulled his white tank top over his head. "I bust my ass trying to reach another level in combat, and you just get it handed to you on a silver platter."

"It's called Aura, my good brother," Ron stated proudly. "Something you will never understand unless you take the position of your father - ."

Stahl ignited his own Aura in anger, flaring a fitting cold steel field of color around his body. Ronald stared blankly at Stahl for what felt like ten minutes. Stahl got so freaked out that he pulled out his Scroll and checked the time. Sure enough and thankfully, it was less than a minute.

"Well," Wilhelm eventually said. "That was certainly unexpected. I pray you'll request for someone to patch up your seals."

"Not happening, Spider-Eyes," Stahl answered. "I chose to do this myself so I could actually advance a little quicker."

"Oh, please," the son of the Pater Magnus laughed. "You couldn't hurt a fly even _with_ Aura."

Stahl pounced on his teammate, overpowering the snarky heir within seconds.

"You think I'm unfit to be team leader for Team KRCN (Kraken)," Krieger growled in Ron's ear. "I could kick your ass to the moon and back, even if you hit me with one of those Aura laser things."

"I'd like to see you get up after such an attack," Ron challenged.

"Bring it." The black-eyed silver haired swordsman got off of his teammate and opened his arms wide as if inviting an attack. "I'm wide open."

Stahl was sent through the wall into the all-girls Team VRGO (Virgo), still having enough stamina to take another Aura beam to the chest. His Aura shield had long since dissipated, but he still got back up and assumed a boxing stance.

"Told you so," the leader of KRCN grinned.

"More than," Ron admitted. "I hit you with two concentrated Aura beams, and you can still stand with ease. In fact, I'm certain my first took your Aura down to nothing, and you arose as though I only kicked you through the wall."

"Get the fuck out of our room, asshole," Cherise Vanille, the leader of VRGO, ordered Krieger. "Can't you see we're changing, you pervert?"

"Can't _you_ see that my eyes are closed," Stahl returned. "Or do you have one of those sleeping blindfolds on?"

"I do, in fact," she admitted. She apparently raised it to see Ron staring in through the 4-foot hole in the wall. "Oh, great. Now your partner's being a pervert. Good going, moron."

"Hey, I didn't know it worked on humans too," Stahl defended.

"Neither did I," Ron admitted. "But I do know some other uses." Krieger risked a peek and turned to the hole, noticing that Ron's nose was almost a river of blood.

"If that blood were coming from anywhere else, I'd swear that you were either Jesus Christ, on your period, or had some freakish disease I didn't know about."

"He likes what he sees, apparently," Cherise growled. "Oi, Krieger. If you're a hemophobe, I'd look away if I were you."

"Don't dirty your nails, Pop-Tart," Krieger growled, cracking his knuckles and stalking to his partner with a terrifying glare. "In fact, get to bed. We'll fix the wall tomorrow. I'll take care of this."

Ron's screams could be heard throughout the dormitory.

* * *

Yup, Stahl's doing alright. He's gotta be, else Josh would be down to just himself.

Joshua's scroll dinged with a notification from Stahl himself. Speak of the devil, he's alright.

' _My Aura's unlocked. Ron's was never locked. I'm leader of Team KRCN in Shade. Ron's with me. And you?_ '

Joshua grinned and sent back the following: ' _Turns out I'm actually called Joshua U. A. Archus. I'm leader of Team JNPR in Beacon. Maximus Prime is here._ '

 **DING.**

' _Heard you were supposed to kill P. Nikos. Did you?_ ' Joshua sighed, being forced to spread the news further than it already was. He was a big enough target already, and this story was going to endanger at least one other person.

' _She is safe. I protected her night before last. She's my partner now._ '

That would definitely get the picture across. Just before heading to Beacon, then-Jaune told Stahl that he'd protect his partner and team at the expense of the attacker's life. He meant it, and Stahl understood that and backed his play. Now that Pyrrha was his partner, and especially since he had a massive Aura to call his own, very few would be willing to attack him.

An alarm on his Scroll sounded, alerting Joshua to the time: 8:50. Ten minutes to nine. Not bad timing. He turned to face Pyrrha again as he pulled on his coat, and was most certainly glad to see that she was putting on her heels. Problem was, he got a decent idea of what was under her skirt. Ugh, third time's the charm his ass.

Pyrrha finally - and thankfully - stood up finally. Joshua buttoned the front of his blazer and smoothed over the collars.

"Why are you wearing a tie," Pyrrha asked bluntly. He shrugged as Nora stepped out of the shower braiding Ren's wartail. Ren had only a towel over his waist while Nora had a rosy blush to her face wearing a disheveled towel over her own body. Huh, strange.

"I just think a double windsor fits me better," Joshua admitted. Nora giggled upon hearing the term 'double windsor'.

"That sounds so sexy," Nora looked over at her leader. "'Double Windsor'. What is that anyways, Ren?"

"It's a form of tie, like a bowtie," Ren answered. "Let's just call it a businessman tie, as it _is_ most commonly found on them."

"Huh," Joshua hummed. "That makes the Pater Magnus sound even more fishy to me. He taught me that one, told me that noblemen wore it to impress women they courted. Most peculiar…."

"Eight fifty-five," Weiss was heard shouting at someone, a few minutes after Nora and Ren had dressed themselves in the school uniform. "Classes start at nine, you dolt!"

All of Team JNPR peeked around the door nervously.

"FUCK," Gekido and Rosso shouted simultaneously, whopped upside the heads by Max within seconds of them saying it. Team MACH bolted out their dorms at rather insane speeds… except for Gekido and Max, who breathed fire and flew or transformed and flew respectively. Giant monster physics, man. They make no sense whatsoever.

"Quick, we have five minutes to get to Port's class," Joshua shouted. "TOP SPEED!"

Pyrrha ran at top speed to keep up with the rest of her team, only to be grabbed by her partner and leader as he passed by. Nora used her Semblance to increase her speed, sending oxygen ions in her wake as she dried off that way. Ren did the craziest parkour moves just to keep up with his partner. Joshua used his Semblance, Celestial Meteor, to quadruple his speed and strength. By the time they reached Professor Port's lecture hall, Pyrrha was straightening out her hair as best as she could with the four minutes they had, Nora was giggling like a schoolgirl (well, technically she was, but not like that) from the short race she and her leader apparently had, Ren was stiff as a board in lingering surprise, and Joshua was huffing and puffing and wheezing and squeaking to cool off from his incredible Semblance/race. Team RWBY had just enough time to take their seats before the Santa Claus rip-off entered the room wearing his signature tan suit. First day of classes, here they go.

 **End**

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the wait. I had to set up my new story, Arc of All Trades Season 1. The whole premise of the entire series, all of Season 1 included, is to create a compelling story as to how Jaune would work his way to the top if he didn't use Crocea Mors. In Season 1, I've already had to make some serious changes to the story just to make it work out. It's much different from my normal angsty style of writing, and believe me when I tell you that it has been an unusually easy struggle. I would definitely give it a recommendation for you to read it.**

 **On a second note, I also have a which I set up roughly a week ago (8 days ago, to be exact). If you'd like to donate to me (per-month basis, just so you know), you can find me there as General Texas.**

 **Furthermore, I have a new schedule for writing: AAT (Arc of All Trades), PH (Prime Heroes), and any other stories I may get to during the week will be updated between Monday through Saturday, while Sundays are my days off. If I ever need a day off, I'll be sure to take it. I'll only be able to get to one story per day, but it only took me 3-4 hours to write this chapter so I should be good to do two if I so desired. BTW, don't worry about me going to work, this is my full-time job now (unless I'm working on a novel, then that's top priority).**

 **And lastly, I turned 19 on the very day that I created my page. No need to congratulate me, 19 is nothing to sneeze at comparatively. However, I will boast slightly and say that I got a new optical mouse that lights up and changes colors. It's technically a gaming mouse, but I still use it for everything. Prideful boasting deadified, I feel great now that I'm back in the groove of things. Still got depression to deal with, but I can easily fix that provided Dad/Mom/Bro don't lose their shit or keep me from working all day.**

 **Wow, that was rather fast. Now I just have to work on literally everything else, gotta keep it all even. So without further ado, and as I always say, this is General Texas signing out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**I just realized while writing this chapter that I left last chapter unnamed. Whoops. Que awkward smile.**

* * *

Prime Heroes

A RWBY/Transformers Crossover

Chapter 7: Rise, Knight of Unity

*Shade Academy*

Stahl awoke with a short yawn. The rest of his team was still asleep at this time. A good thing, as it was only 7:30 when the simple knight awoke. He turned to sit on the left side of his bed and, after running his fingers through his hair, withdrew a small locket hung around his neck by chains. He opened it, revealing the image of someone dear to him.

The woman in the image was roughly his age, 19 years of age, with an interesting choice in clothes. Instead of the average attire of an ordinary citizen, the short girl wore a white jacket with a pink interior over a gray striped figure-hugging top the proper term for which Stahl had long since forgotten. That wasn't all she wore, but it was all that was revealed by the image in the locket. She had brown hair with one side dyed pink, and a liaison with one pink eye, one brown. Her red lips were upturned in a smile that lit up his world. While she didn't talk much, his memories of her sweet voice echoed in his mind. Her name was Neo, given to her when a friend outside of the Arc family took her under his wing.

The last time Stahl had seen the bright-eyed girl, he had discovered that she was a Virgin Royal, fated to be taken by Jormungand Ginnungagap at an unknown day. He too had a mark on his broad chest, just below his right collarbone, sealing their fates. The young warrior had taken her to a trusted colleague, the infamous criminal Roman Torchwick, in the hopes that he might delay the prophecy's fulfillment. Quite a hefty fortune it had cost him to ensure her safety, but Roman promised that he wouldn't lay a finger on her and swore on his life to keep her safe. Stahl wanted desperately to contact her, to touch her soft skin, to hold her close and hear her silken voice once more; were he to do so, however, the Arc family would soon follow and kill her, be it because his Seals were broken or due to her fate as a Virgin Royal. A risk Stahl was unwilling to take.

The leader of Team KRCN looked around at his teammates entrusted to him by the Headmaster of Shade. Obviously there was Ronald Wilhelm, whose normal attire included a rather elegant golden chestpiece over a hooded red zip-up jacket, a pair of armored maroon sports compression pants covered by dark gray cargo shorts, and thick kaleidoscopic glasses giving off the impression of 'Spider-Eyes', hence his nickname. His eyes were a deep brown with hints of gold laced within, jet black hair with red streaks covering them partially. Supposedly, his Semblance was Quantum, meaning he could change what it did on a whim at the cost of additional Aura or a Dust supplement. His preference was naturally Neutralize, meaning he could temporarily stop or dissipate the Semblance of his opponents. The blade he carried, Communicator, was a split-blade bastard sword, with one side of the blade being silver and shorter while the other comprised of a titanium-gold alloy extending farther than its counterpart at the cost of shorter width; the gap between the blade segments was roughly 2 inches, connected at points by steel braces, its cobalt guard, or the white gold tip of the blades conjoining the segments and colors. Just like the name of his weapon, Ronald prefers diplomacy to combat, but will fight if necessary. When pushed to the point of the latter, Ron can be more vicious than an Ursa on just about every breed of drug and Dust you could possibly imagine.

Aegir 'Copperhead' Fenrir slept in the bed between Ronald to the right and his partner to the left next to the wall. He wore a small bronze pauldron on his left arm for better mobility, a large steel pauldron on his right for better protection. His shirt, emblazoned with the title of his favorite band, was a deep navy color with the image of a white-eyed deity rising from a massive ravine between two mountains, lightning pouring from the pits. His pants were ripped from the knees down and bore many rips and tears all over the bright blue material. Aegir's eyes shone a dangerous topaz-emerald color, reminding Stahl of the ocean near the beach, and were accented with his red-orange tangled mess of hair. The axe of the Fenrir child bore a striking resemblance to an old battleaxe from certain fairytales about raiders from gods-forsaken lands, colored blue at the curved edge with a blue stone at the pommel and just above the head. Akin to Aegir's nickname, the axe had a copper head laced with the deadly combination of Ice and Fire Dust, creating Water Dust with extreme power and versatility both in and out of the water it created or entered. Fenrir usually gave it a second edge of Aura-enhanced water using his Semblance, which was called Ocean Rider and allowed him to manipulate the water around him into any shape or form he desired. All in all, he was an ancient force to be reckoned with.

Nikolay Karabin is an awkward case mainly due to his name breaking the long streak of Josef Karabins out there, his father being Josef Karabin XXI; his real name is technically Josef Karabin XXII, but he prefers the name Nikolay. He wears a goofy fur hat with a gold star on the pinned-up forehead, a dark camo short-sleeved jacket underneath an under-armored similar camo vest with the same gold star on each shoulder, black pants which cut off around the middle of the calf, and golden combat boots covering short white socks. Those eyes of his were a shiny sky blue color, contrasting with his dirty blond hair. His Semblance literally does not exist due to the fact that the Karabin family has the tendency to wrestle 12-foot bears in their free time. Karabin's weapon, as if it couldn't be more obvious, was a carbine assault rifle with a pair of steel knuckles to go with. Despite all the cliches brought up with his outfit, lack of a Semblance, and name, he actually has one of those 'crikey' accents and wouldn't slap you even if a fly were crawling on your face unless you asked him, and even then he wouldn't due to his kind-hearted nature. Give him a fly alone, or gods forbid a bear, and he's a completely different person whose path you wouldn't dare cross if you valued your life.

Stahl himself, on the other hand, wore the full setup of a Knight's plate-armor overlaying chainmail over a fabric of some kind. Sure it might take awhile for someone else to put it on, but Krieger was able to put it on within five minutes. Why, one might ask? Because all he had to put on was the crotch guard and his breastplate, and the armor pieces transformed into the rest of the armor within minutes, then all he needed to do was lock certain pieces together and quite literally step into his boots. His hair was just as unusual as that of his girlfriend, shining a bright silver with a few strands of gold giving off a warm reflection. Stahl's eyes were just as weird, black as night and completely unreflective like a Black Hole. His pale white skin hardly ever tanned, always losing its new color within a few weeks every time; hit it, however, and it more like punching a ten-yard thick wall of Dust and steel-reinforced concrete, discovered when he went through the Trials in his extreme youth. The blade he owned, Blitzer, was a powerful claymore with a jagged edge for more damage, Lightning Dust infused into the blades for a shocking experience for his enemies, and a red/yellow paint job on different sides of the darkened steel blade. Stahl was even more powerful with his weapon when using his Aura, giving the blade a whistle sounding like a diving bomber, earning the technique's name 'Blitzkrieg'. He had modified it two days before to have a pistol attachment at the hilt, giving him a far more powerful edge than most Arcs could give naturally.

Stahl loved his teammates like family, except for Ron who was his brother in all but blood. Besides, he could tell who liked who within his team. For example, Ron had the hots for Cherise Vanille from Team VRGO, which he displayed annoyingly throughout Initiation the other day. Aegir adored Ginger Washington, mostly due to how adorably energetic or how focused and controlled she tended to be. Nikolay didn't seem to like anyone, but his eyes always seemed to follow Olivia Vineleaf for some unexplained reason. Stahl, the oldest of the group by far, already had a girlfriend who he couldn't visit or introduce to his teammates, especially not to Ron. He couldn't even show the man a picture, as his Quantum Semblance was a bit too dangerous to trust for the moment.

" _I never figured you'd be worthy_ ," a familiar voice entered Stahl's head. " _Didn't even think you'd manage to break your Seals out of sheer luck. And before you go and speak out loud, I'm in your head, so don't even try unless you want to sound like a fool._ "

 _Was that Solomon Archus_ , the young man asked himself. _Was he even alive? I could've sworn he was killed by one of our own._

" _I was,_ " Solomon's voice echoed through his ear drums. " _That's not your fight just yet, though. I need to tell you about something. About the last occupation I had before I fell. Here goes, prepare your mind._ "

* * *

*Beacon, 1 hour prior*

"That was most interesting," Maximus admitted. Team MACH had just left the General Sciences Introductory Class taught by Professor Peach, leaving just after 4:00 PM that afternoon. "I think my motherboard just came close to frying."

"Why do you insist on referring to your anatomy as if you were a machine," Weiss huffed snarkily. "I admit that your Semblance is most interesting, but you're just as human as we are. Speech like that will only make you sound strange."

"Then should I be allowed to fly around as a drone, or would that be overkill," the Prime asked legitimately. Weiss shook her head. "I could've sworn that my abilities were common knowledge. And as for my Semblance, please don't say that my transformations are nothing more than a Semblance. In fact, I can assure you with utmost certainty that my ability to transform is nowhere near the definition of a Semblance; a Semblance requires Aura to use, even if it is the smallest amount, whereas my simply transforming into a drone takes no Aura at all. It is growing in size and using the Matrix that uses my Aura, and that I can assure you is most definitely my Semblance."

"Oh my gods, please shut up," the heiress snapped. "I've had enough with the 'I'm special, I use a mathematical technique to power up'. None of what you say makes sense to me - ."

Maximus's chest opened up like a steel locker, from which he withdrew the Matrix of Leadership. Weiss was frozen in fear of something she'd seen, though whether it was the Matrix itself or not was a different matter.

"This is the Matrix of Leadership I spoke of," Maximus explained, Matrix firmly in hand. "And in reality, I'm not really anything special in comparison to my ancestor aside from the fact that I'm half human instead of fully alien robot. I have a Spark like all the others, which resides as part of my heart when I'm not a robot myself and from which my soul and Aura manifest themselves. My processors, motherboard, and memory banks transform into my brain when I am human, and so on. I could further explain at any time you ask me to."

"Uh, dude," Evan tapped Max's shoulder. "First off, please transform completely in the future, just opening your chest like a… well, a chest? That's creepier than any of the creepy things I've seen, and those are literally as scary as Hell itself. And secondly, I'm praying that you've noticed just where she's staring, because she looks outright traumatized." Both Yang and Rosso burst out laughing at this. "And ignore them, they're probably still a little too excited from spending the last few hours yesterday in a one night stand."

"HEY," the two hotheads yelled at Evan. Di Angelo smirked, knowing that he'd just essentially taken their confessions to the act. Ruby was absolutely confused at this, likely not even knowing what her sister did with the Daemonkin.

Maximus took a look at Weiss and let his eyes flash, marking out the trajectory for where her eyes were staring at. The heiress's eyes were locked on his Spark, shaking as if she'd seen something terrible involving a shard of the Allspark Cube. He replaced the Matrix and closed his chest.

"You're staring at my Spark," the Prime stated blankly, hoping to snap her out of her trance. "I've noticed you seem afraid. May I inquire as to why?" She snapped out alright, but she didn't give him an answer. Instead, she turned her head upwards and walked off like the prissy girl she was. Maximus sighed glumly, turning his own way and walking off. The holograms of different humanoid machines erupted from his shoulders like he said was normal. 'Manifestations of the Primes before me' he'd called them, making no mention of Earth's history to his allies.

" _She will understand someday,_ " Optimus said through his hologram. Maximus nodded.

"Not today, evidently," said the living Prime. "For now, I'd best start practicing for next month's gig."

" _Remind me again,_ " Micronus Prime crossed his tiny arms, " _Since when were you a musician?_ "

"When I was younger," Maximus explained. "I had quite the voice back then. Still do, I just hardly use it nowadays. Guess I'll have to, since I need money for Beacon and the like."

" _What will you spend your income on_ ," Optimus questioned.

"Anything and everything my team needs, as well as the needs of other teams just in case," Maximus responded to the Prime before him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to practice."

Roughly an hour later, Max felt an unfamiliar presence inside him, immediately sitting down and entering the presence of the Primes through his Spark. Among their numbers were the Knights of Virtue, all eight of them, and the image of a ninth unfamiliar young man.

"What is this," Maximus demanded, rather concerned by now. "Who is he, that one?" He gestured to the image.

"That would be one of the next Knights of Virtue," Solomon Archus explained through his part of the Matrix. "It would seem that the Matrices have selected him, though not many others."

"Firstly, before you explain as much to me, please tell me how many Knights are remaining," Maximus ordered.

"None," Solomon explained. "Someone has killed us, all of us. They who slew us, I know not their identity."

"Thank you, Solomon," Optimus thanked him. "However, why have the Matrices not chosen any more candidates?"

"That is a question more easily answered," said the Knight of Hope. "The Matrices spoke through us in our final moments, the first time being through Faith, then myself, and so on until Sacrifice was the last, and even he gave the same prophecy: 'Someday a man will stand over you. He will hold a blade stronger than even a Maiden with her two Knights. With my dying breath, I curse you to be slain by a Blade of Unity, held by a man of Virtue beyond all doubt. He shall seem weak to you, but by his blade you shall be slain, and your evil will fall to his sword.'"

"We had initially thought that new Knights would be chosen and together they would take down the one who saw us slain," Justice explained. "But, to our surprise, the Matrices weren't lying when they said _a_ man. Not even another woman has been chosen, but this one young man seems to attract all of the Virtuous Matrices simultaneously."

"With this literal translation, we have several questions answered and many more yet to be," Courage continued. "For example, who is our killer, and what is this 'evil' of theirs which has yet to be taken down? Perhaps most pressing in the matter is: which Virtue will this single candidate be chosen for?"

"And who is he, and where," Sentinel inquired. Solomon piped up almost immediately after Sentinel asked.

"That would be Stahl Krieger, a friend of my brother Joshua," Solomon said almost excitedly. "His location is unknown, and I was unable to properly see him while I was alive, but I believe he is the son of Pyropus Arc."

"He's in the Arc family," Megatronus nearly shouted. "Why in the name of Primus himself would the Matrix choose someone in that barbaric troupe?!"

"Earlier today, Joshua told me he's in Vacuo with Ronald Wilhelm," Maximus inserted. "Said recently that Stahl's Seals were broken just before then, trained up enough to at least flare his Aura."

"Well, _that_ makes it better," Megatronus huffed.

"Hey, Joshua trusted him when he was Jaune, and then he didn't trust anyone. I say we pull a page from Solomon's book and put our faith in the Matrix."

"*sigh* Fine, but I don't have to like it."

"There, it's settled. Now do as the Matrix says and contact the kid."

"Judging by his current records, he's 19," Solus Prime corrected Maximus.

"WHATEVER!"

* * *

How am I going to do this? I need a weapon, and it wouldn't feel right using Solomon's old sword. Hmmm… I do like the colors, white and gold. I also need new armor that actually fits. Ugh, I need help.

Those were the thoughts going through Joshua's mind as he sat at the team desk, lucky that the professors hadn't given any homework else he'd be in the way. He racked his mind for ideas, but few actually came in the way of something other than a sword and shield. The armor he had in mind had white gold and gold as the primary colors, no Dust, and covered at least his chest and arms; his favorite of the ideas would have to be the one which involved full plate armor, a crown replacing a proper knight's helmet. As for the blade and shield, he'd probably go for a much larger heat shield than that which his brother used, and a claymore interpretation of Excalibur with far more pieces than one might expect of a simple sword. The blade itself would definitely have to be longer than 48 inches, else it would be more like an arming sword to him, so most likely 54 inches would be better. The shield's size would have to be 50 inches top to bottom and 44 inches across the top, otherwise it wouldn't fit him.

The easiest idea was the idea of a crown, which simply came across as a 5-point crown, with the largest point reaching 8 inches high, the left and right peaks coming to 5 inches high and 3 inches apart from the 8-inch peak, and the far left/right peaks being a mere 3 inches high and 2 inches from the 5-inch peaks.

Somehow, the image of his crown design on top of a heat shield gave Joshua an idea. His old symbol, the two arches, needed to change since that was the main symbol of the Arc 'family'. They could keep it for crying out loud. What he needed was something more befitting of him, and the idea of a 5-point crown over a 3-point heat shield was almost perfect in his mind. Adding the image of a sword, point down behind the shield and only revealing the guard up, flashed in his mind and sealed the deal. That was his new symbol, and he was going to own it.

From that point on, his designs for new armor and weapons became slightly easier. Slightly being the key word there.

 **End**

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 **A/N: That was actually painful to write. I was trying to keep to my schedule, but my mother trying to earn money sucked up the limited WiFi like a black hole sucks in light. I found it hard to get on YouTube yesterday, and that's the easiest site aside from Google and Gmail to access. We got that problem solved eventually, but I couldn't do much in the way of writing then.**

 **After eventually satisfying my desire for entertainment aside from writing and reading, I've gotten around to finishing this today. The rest of this week will likely be the same way, as will next week and so on until the day I can move out or move on to the next life. Hoping that doesn't happen, preparing myself in case it does, and praying for something in between, you know the drill.**

 **Dramatics aside, I hope you enjoyed, and I know that you know how I always end. page, same as my Pen Name, etc. etc. By the way, next week (starting Sunday) I'll move on to either a new story, an older story like Avalon Reborn, or right back to AAT1, so I'm working as hard as I can on this story while it's still 'this week'. That way, I'm not confused like I was last chapter. Trust me, it's best like this.**

 **General Texas, signing out.**


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